Crawley Down Gatwick 4, Seaford Town 0: Anvils through in Senior Cup

After the recent traumas of league football, it was good to get back into a bit of Cup action, this time against a youthful Seaford Town side, who tho well beaten in the end never gave up the chase thro out the match.

Anvils opened up first with Michael Belli sounding out Seaford keeper Ben Head, whom was the main ingredient in keeping the Town in the game, more Anvil corners followed without to much threat, come 17 mins and the Anvils finally broke thro when a diagonal ball found Kieran Greig, whom after an ‘airshot’ at goal still managed to have another go and this time scored. 1-0 Anvils.

This then started an Anvil purple patch with two further goals in the next 3 mins, the first of this twosome coming thro Dan Sullivan supplying the cross that Michael Belli in space drove home, then came Ben Brooker seizing on a long ball that opened up the Towns defence and left him unchallenged to run tho and notch number three. 3-0 Anvils.

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Seaford manfully fought their way back into the game with Khalid Bilal screwing wide, followed by Ant Adebanibo also missing the target, on the half hour Anvil keeper Martin Hopkins saw action when saving from Bilal’s corner.

For the rest of the half the Anvils started to get well on top, finding space and spraying the ball around with infinite ease, on the half hour Brooker then set free Sullivan who in turn fired wide of goal, Greig was showing great pace down the left flank and frequently showed a ‘clean pair of heels’ to the Towns defenders, whilst in midfield the experienced Belli and the youthful Josh Brown commanded the midfield as half time was reached.

For the Second half read the First, as the Anvils really started to dominate, Brooker and Greig combining to bring keeper Head to his knees, followed by Leslie twisting and turning to shoot but the keeper yet again came to the Towns rescue, on the hour mark both Brown and Marc Pelling had chances to add to the score, changes on the Anvil bench came with Leslie and Sullivan being replaced by Kerran Boylan and Andy Goodwin, then just after Belli who looked to be limping was replaced by Sam Cane.

Seaford tho under the ‘cosh’ still tried hard to breakdown the Anvil backline, but with James Day and Pelling winning everthing in the air, and Blair Cooneys crunching tackling plus James Lovatt also perfoming well in his first match for some time, really shackled the Towns attacking options, and the little that did get thro was usually well dealt with by Hopkins in the Anvil goal, whilst for the visitors whom apart from a Adebanibo cross and another Bilal effort, plus other minor excursions that was to be it for the Town.

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Last 20 it was all one way, with Greg notching the Anvils fourth, and Boylan striking the bar, and if it hadn’t been for Town keeper Head the score could easily have been doubled, but as stated the game was virtually over after that 3 min spell earlier in the first half. FT 4-0 Anvils.

Team: 1. Martin Hopkins 2. Blair Cooney 3. James Lovall 4. James Day 5. Marc Pelling 6. Josh Brown 7. Dan Sullivan ( Andy Goodwin ) 8. Michael Belli ( Sam Cane ) 9. Ben Brooker 10. Oli Leslie ( Kerran Boylan ) 11. Kieran Greig.

MOM: Josh Brown. Gate: 26.

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