Watt lights up Crawley win
Tyrone Barnett celebrates his first goal against Cheltenham (Pic by Jon Rigby)
SANCHEZ Watt scored twice on his home debut for Crawley Town as the Reds went top of League 2 with a 4-2 defeat of Cheltenham Town tonight.
The Reds knocked Cheltenham off top-spot as they went from fourth to first with the win, which also saw a brace from Tyrone Barnett.
New signing Billy Clarke was superb on his Crawley debut, while fellow new addition Karl Hawley had to be content with a place on the bench, coming on for the last four minutes of an impressive victory.
Fans and club officials had joined forces 24 hours earlier to clear more than 100 tonnes of snow from the Broadfield Stadium pitch, in a bid to ensure the game went ahead. And they are glad they did.
Despite the plunging temperatures, it was a very sprightly start from the hosts, and Clarke went tantalisingly close to a debut goal when his snap shot from range flashed past the far post. But moments later Cheltenham were in front. Marlon Pack’s shot was saved by Scott Shearerand just as Crawley thought they had cleared the danger Luke Garbutt crashed home a low drive to open the scoring with his second of the season in the sixth minute.
Crawley responded with a Clarke shot over the top, while Russ Penn’s effort was parried by Shearer at the other end.
But it was on-loan Arsenal youngster Sanchez Watt who stepped up to haul Crawley level. Pouncing on a loose ball in midfield, his early shot scorched past Scott Brown in the Robins goal. And with their tails up, some neat Reds football released Tyrone Barnett inside the box but he could only screw his shot wide. But two minutes later Barnett made amends with a quite astonishing goal, hit first time from 25 yards his shot curled into the top right hand corner of Brown’s goal.
After that crazy first 20 minutes, the clash settled down and Crawley dominated possession for long spells, with Clarke running the show at times. It got even better for Steve Evans’ men five minutes before the break and his volley for his 15th goal of the season burst into the roof of the net after David Hunt’s clipped ball fell for him, sending the home support even deeper into the throes of ecstasy.
Cheltenham have emerged as genuine title contenders and they showed some of those credentials after the break, putting the Reds defence under pressure, and Garbutt forced a flying save from Shearer with a well struck free kick. But ten minutes into the half Clarke produced an even sweeter strike with a first time shot from ten yards which rattled Brown’s crossbar.
And the Reds confirmed their return to the summit of League 2 with a delicious team goal, Clarke and Dannie Bulman were involved before Barnett’s shot was deflected into Watt’s path and the 20-year-old rammed home his second of the night from a tight angle.
There was a consolation 15 minutes from time, Keith Low drilled a ball into the six yard box, and Darryl Duffy was on the line to prod in from close range.
Clarke should have had the goal his work rate deserved seven minutes from time, but after finding a yard of space inside the Robins box, he headed straight at Brown.
Crawley: Scott Shearer, David Hunt, Dean Howell, Claude Davis, Pablo Mills, Sergio Torres, Dannie Bulman, Kyle McFadzean, Sanchez Watt, Tyrone Barnett, Billy Clarke.
Subs: Michel Kuipers, Hope Akpan, Josh Simpson (on for Watt 90) , Karl Hawley (on for Clarke 87), Scott Neilson.
Cheltenham: Scott Brown, Keith Lowe, Marlon Pack, Jeff Goulding, Alan Bennett, Russ Penn, Luke Garbutt, Jermaine McGlashan, Sido Jombati, Kaid Mohamed, Luke Summerfield.
Subs: Josh Low, Darryl Duffy (on for Goulding 60), Brian Smikle (on for McGlashan 60), James Spencer (on for Penn 60), Harry Hooman.
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Weather for Crawley
Sunday 27 May 2012
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