A brace from Dan Agyei was not enough for Crewe Alexandra to defeat Crawley Town at Broadfield Stadium following a second yellow card to defender Sean Robertson.
Manager Lee Bell made three changes from Tuesday’s 2-0 home defeat against Leyton Orient with midfielders Callum Ainley and Conor Thomas as well as forward Bassala Sambou came in for Rio Adebisi and Charlie Colkett, who both dropped down to the bench, and David Amoo who went off injured in that game.
The opening chance fell to the hosts in the 5th minute with Dom Telford hitting the side-netting before they would take the lead in the 19th minute with Kellan Gordon’s cross deflecting in off Alex captain Luke Offord.
After a double substitution that saw Adebisi and Connor O’Riordan replace Sambou and Tariq Uwakwe (as well as a change to a 3-5-2 shape), the visitors were level 6 minutes after the break as Agyei got on the end of a Ryan Finnigan through-ball to finish from a tight angle into the roof of the net past keeper Cody Addai before it would get better just after the hour-mark with Ainley fouled in the area by Gordon, Agyei sent the Crawley keeper the wrong way from the spot.
There was still time for Robertson to pick up his second booking of the day for a push (following an early booking for the young loanee) before the hosts levelled the score 7 minutes into stoppage-time through a left-sided cross controlled by captain Ben Gladwin who fired past Richards.
The next games for the Alex see them host Hartlepool United on Tuesday before travelling to Harrogate Town next Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
It’s about time that we managed to score twice in a game (mid-August was the last time that happened) although it wasn’t enough to win this game.
After going behind to another soft goal that we need to defend better, especially against teams like Crawley that we’ll be battling to stay in the league against, it was good to see Agyei finish well from a great Finnigan ball from the angle he did as well as be composed from the spot with the penalty.
Broadfield Stadium
League 2
12/02/2023 4:00 pm
Attendance: 2589
Referee: Charles Breakspear
| Crawley Town | Crewe Alexandra | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| og, Gladwin | Agyei (2) | ||||||
| Addai | Richards | ||||||
| Gordon | Robertson | ||||||
| Francillette | Offord | ||||||
| Conroy | McDonald | ||||||
| Tsaroulla | Uwakwe | 46 | |||||
| Jenks | 75 | Ainley | 84 | ||||
| Fellows | 90 | Thomas | |||||
| Powell | 70 | Finnigan | |||||
| Gladwin | Sambou | 46 | |||||
| Nadesan | Agyei | ||||||
| Telford | Nevitt | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Schofield | Beadle | ||||||
| Lynch | 90 | Adebisi | 46 | ||||
| Johnson | Griffiths | ||||||
| Oteh | 75 | O'Riordan | 46 | ||||
| Roles | 70 | Colkett | |||||
| Ogungbo | Brook | 84 | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 11 | Goal attempts | 6 |
| 2 | On Target | 4 |
| 7 | Corners | 3 |
| 16 | Fouls | 14 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 3 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 1 |
| 62 | % | 38 |