Crawley Town 1 Exeter City 1: Reds miss out record sixth successive home win

A second half goal on the hour by Felipe Morais was cancelled out on 79 minutes by a goal by substitute Lee Holmes with a counter-attack following a corner-kick.

Gabriele Cioffi named an unchanged team from Saturday’s brilliant 4-1 win against Newport County.

Exeter made three changes with Lee Martin, Matt Jay and Jordan Tilson replacing Hiram Boeteng, Lee Holmes and topscorer Jayden Stockley, who was on the bench.

In a quieter start to the game compared with Saturday, City created the first chance of the game, a long-distance shot from 25 yards lifted over the bar by former Reds loanee Jonathan Forte.

Josh Payne had a go for Crawley from 30 yards which kept low but flew wide.

The crowd really rose to the occasion annd created a superb atmosphere, buoyed by Reds’ run of five successfive home wins.

In the second half Luke Gambin created an opening from a run but his attempt on goal was blocked by Aaron Martin.

Lewis Young almost set-up Felipe Morais for a golden opportunity in front of goal but he was unable to touch the ball.

Panutche Camara carried out some great work, beating an opponent before having a go himself but low shot forced a save from ‘keeper Pym.

Reds took the lead in the 60th minute when a long ball to Ollie Palmer was brought down, he passed to Morais who scored in the far corner with a good finish.

Exeter came close to equalising immediately when Lee Martin crossed to Forte whose effort was well saved by Glenn Morris.

The Grecians again almost netted when Forte’s cross found substitute Stockley whose header went narrowly wide.

Exeter equalised with 11 minutes to go against the run of play when substitute Holmes won the ball following a corner and ran more than half the length of the field in a breakaway attack, rounding Reds subsitute Josh Doherty and beating Morris.

It was end to end action in injury-time as first Stockley sees the ball cleared off the line then Pym makes a double save to preserve the point.

Crawley Town: Morris, Young, Payne (Bulman 89), Connolly, Palmer, Gambin (Nathaniel-George 70), Francomb, Maguire (Doherty 64), Vincelot, Morais (capt), Camara

Subs: Mersin, McNerney, Poleon

Exeter City: Pym, Sweeney, A.Martin, L.Martin, Law, Forte, Jay (Holmes 60), Moxey, Croll, Taylor (capt), Tilson (Stockley 56)

Subs: Hamon, O’Shea, Woodman, Stockley, Abrahams

Referee: John Busby

Attendance: 2,095

Man of the Match: Felipe Morais