Crawley Town 2, Forest Green Rovers 0: Orsi and Lolos goals give Reds three points

Danilo Orsi’s first half goal was the Reds 700th league goal and Klaidi lolos made it 701 with a late second half strike to guarantee Scott Lindsey’s side all three points.

Orsi clinically found the far corner of the net with a neat flick after a well-worked cross by Nick Tsaroulla to open the scoring just before the break. Crawley who dominated possession in the first half struggled to create any huge chances before the goal was scored .

With a slim lead to defend going into the last ten minutes, Crawley began making silly mistakes. A free kick was cheaply given away by Will Wright after Corey Addai failed to find a player in red with his throw. However they managed to keep their cool in the end as Lolos added a second for Crawley in the 88th minute with his strike into a near empty net from close range.

Crawley Town made two changes to their starting eleven from the one that drew 1-1 to Walsall midweek. Harry Ransom replaced the injured Laurence Maguire and Adam Campbell returned to replace Klaidi Lolos who dropped to the bench.

Jeremy Kelly who was gifted his second start since signing for Crawley in January didn’t disappoint Scott Lindsey as he started brightly on the left hand side when he stole the ball of Fankaty Dabo which allowed the American to put a dangerous ball into the box which was dealt with by the Forest Green defence.

Will Wright who started on the left side of the defence produced an incredible sliding challenge to stop Dabo getting through on goal which was the visitors first menacing opportunity.

Tsaroulla danced his way through the Forest Green defence before being brought down inside the box but the referee waved the game on as the ball was collected by goalkeeper Vincente Reyes.

It took the Green Devils 32 minutes to register a shot at Corey Addai, when Charlie Mccann shot from near to the halfway line. On the balls way to goal it looked promising, but in the end it was comfortably caught by the Crawley shot stopper.

Three minutes into the second half, The Reds were awarded a free kick on the left hand side. Liam Kelly played an enticing ball to the near post, however the attacking players were unable to reach the ball in time as Reyes collected the cross.

Liam Kelly was then given another opportunity to put the ball into the box, this time from a corner which was met by the head of Jay Williams who lost sight of goal as he drove his effort to the ground instead.

Orsi who scored his 15th goal of the season earlier in the game managed to steal the ball off the Forest Green defence and cut it back to Klaidi Lolos in the centre of the box whose shot was blocked. It then fell to Harry Forster whose effort was also blocked.

The Reds managed to string a nice set of passes between Liam Kelly, Kellan Gordon and Ronan Darcy before the ball was put into the box. With Rovers clearly worried, they managed to clear the ball out of the box, only as far as Jay Williams who took it upon himself to strike from range which was off target.

Substitutes Lolos and Forster were involved once again after their earlier shots were blocked. This time they linked up nicely on the left hand side before Lolos played a low cross into the box for Orsi who was unable to get a strong touch on the ball as it left his path.

Lolos gave the cameras a good picture with an attempted bicycle kick but was unable to properly connect with Gordon’s cross which left Forster furious who was positioned just behind the forward.

Addai managed to keep his sides clean sheet with a brilliant save to deny Christian Doidge in the last minute of the game.