Crawley Town 4 Grays Athletic 0 (Setanta Shield 5th Round)
Tue, February 5, 2008. Kick off: 7:45 PM
Match Report By Martin Candler
Grays crashed out of the Setanta Shield at a wet Broadfield Stadium with a disappointing performance against an in-form Crawley Town outfit. Magno Vieira bagged a second hat-trick in the space of 3 days as Crawley tore into the Blues from the start. After 14 minutes, Dannie Bulman pressured Jamie Stuart, won the ball and sent former Blue Pierre Joseph-Dubois racing into the area with a peach of a pass. Ross Flitney, scrambling to cover, brought the Reds front man down and Vieira scored from the resulting penalty. Five minutes later, the pacy Mustapha Carayol stole the ball from Simon Downer and set up a move which saw Brad Thomas‘s deep cross mis-cued by Jon Ashton, the ball falling to Vieira who made no mistake from 12 yards to double the home side‘s advantage. As Crawley threatened to over-run the Blues, Veira almost completed a first half hat-trick but the brilliant Brazilian‘s shot flew inches wide. In a rare Grays attack Scott Taylor set up Michael Standing whose strike went just past Grays legend Ashley Bayes‘ post.
Ten minutes after the restart, Crawley scored again. Ross Flitney made a fine save from Lee Blackburn‘s close-range shot, the ball going out for a corner, taken by Carayol. It was Thomas who rose the highest and his header cannoned off Pierre-Dubois and flew into the net. Grays‘ miserable night continued in the 65th minute when Bulman again released Pierre-Dubois and this time it was Ashton who unceremoniously upended him to concede another penalty, duly converted by Vieira.
In truth, Crawley thoroughly out-played the Blues and we wish them luck in the next round.
Grays Athletic: Flitney, Downer(Mawer 72), Ashton, Stuart, Gaia, Murray, Standing, McCafferty(Day 59), Kedwell(Watson 62), Taylor, O'Connor
Subs not Used: Knowles, Selley
Ref: A Halliday
Attn: 564
|
