Two brilliant Crawley Town wins, but we must not squander home opportunities against Newport County and Mansfield Town - Steve Leake

Well, the answer was an emphatic YES.

Fielding a strong squad, but missing Tunnicliffe, Nichols, Appiah, Dallison and Craig, Crawley ran out convincing winners against a Lancing team that thankfully made it an honest contest. It took about twenty minutes for Crawley to exert their superiority through a thunderous shot from, skipper for the night, Jake Hessenthaler, but after that the goals came pretty regularly, through Battle (2), Tilley (2) with the only set back coming at four nil, when Lancing capitalised on a game of penalty box bagatelle to snatch their consolation.

All our goals came about as the result of slick inter passing and a shoot on sight policy, which hopefully will have been carried over into Saturday’s match at Barrow. For once players staked their claims for selection with pleasing and exciting performances but the cream on the cake, with the proverbial cherry on the top, came with the last kick of the game.

The Lancing keeper had advanced to about ten yards from the penalty area, when Amrit Bonsal-McNulty saw his chance and hit a shot, with the outside of his foot, which sailed into the net a la Beckham, Rooney etc. from the half way line.

People will say we should have won by that many, against a team so far below us in the pyramid, but, having been there and witnessed it, I have to commend our seaside cousins for their tenacity and their Noli Cedere attitude. This was not a walkover, but rather a hard fought, well-earned six one win which will have left John and Lee with the right sort of selection headaches for the trip to Barrow.

Sunday 3am

Waking up from a vicious recurring flesh-eating nightmare what better way is there to restore some calm other than talking, or indeed writing, about another Crawley Town away win. Sixty-nine vocal Reds fans roared the team to victory against a Barrow side who we have now leap frogged over in the league table.

I was unable to keep tabs with the game as I was involved in playing a game of Bowls at Grattons bowling centre, and I didn’t have the Wi-Fi password until just about 4.45pm. One nil, Tilley and an anxious few minutes waiting for it to be confirmed as a fulltime result and all I could do was imagine what songs were being sung up in Cumbria. “How s**t must you be, we’re winning away” or perhaps the seasonal ditty “

Jingle bells, Jingle bells, jingle all the way, oh what fun it is to see Crawley win away”. Whatever the ditty, there would have been a happy band of brothers and sisters travelling home by car, coach or train, no doubt eulogising over James Tilley’s goal and perhaps asking why the likes of Tsaroulla, Grego-Cox and Matthews weren’t in the squad.

Well, all I can say is, we must trust the manager and his staff to assess the fitness of the players and make the correct selection decisions, bearing in mind of course that we have a midweek encounter on Tuesday against Newport County to prepare for as well.

Two home games in a week must not be squandered, and hopefully, if you are reading this in print, we have already slain the Welsh dragon and are happily preparing for Clough and Co at the weekend.

Books

Christmas is coming, and if you know a true Red Devil here are some ideas for you

Noli Cedere (a history of CTFC and other familial, local, national and international events from 1956 to 2020) priced at just £8 (almost £3 off)

Noli Semper Cedere (a history of CTFC from its beginnings to 1956) plus an account of the 20/21 Covid season and memories from fifteen supporters, players and directors priced at £10 (almost £4 off)

Personalised piece of artwork showing the main stand from outside and featuring the Red Wall at £5, complete with personaised message.

OR Both Books at £17 the pair or £21 with the artwork

If interested , please e mail me at [email protected] this week in order to not be disappointed on Christmas day.