Lincoln City 0 Crawley Town 1: Caretaker boss Filipe Morais forces own goal as Reds defeat top of the table Lincoln

Crawley Town became the first team this season to beat Lincoln City in the league, thanks to Filipe Morais forcing an own goal on the stroke of half-time.
Crawley Town FC. Filipe Morais. Pic Steve Robards SR1819916 SUS-180731-115446001Crawley Town FC. Filipe Morais. Pic Steve Robards SR1819916 SUS-180731-115446001
Crawley Town FC. Filipe Morais. Pic Steve Robards SR1819916 SUS-180731-115446001

Crawley looked the better side through out the game against the League 2 leaders, making the shock victory richly deserved.

Lincoln’s fortunes suffered a further set-back early in the second half when skipper Lee Frecklington was given a stright red card for a terrible challenge on Mark Connolly.

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Reds went into the interval in the lead thanks to an own goal by former Crawley player Michael Bostwick just before the break.

Lincoln then suffered another blow when Lee Flecklin was red-carded in the 56th minute for a horrific tackle on Connolly.

Caretaker managers Filipe Morais and Jimmy Smith were in charge of the team for their second league match, while Gabriele Cioffe who was appointed new boss yesterday was watching from the stand.

Morais and Smith made four changes to the team which lost at Oldham last week, with Lewis Young, Joe Maguire, Panutche Camara and Bondz N’Gala coming in.

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Romain Vincelot and Jimmy Smith were both ruled out through injury while Josh Doherty and Dominic Poleon were on the bench.

Lincoln named an unhanged line up from Last Saturday’s 3-0 win ag Exeter City.

Reds made a great start with Ollie Palmer beating three opponents before going down in the area, but no penalty was given.

Then Palmer dispossed keeper Grant Smith of the ball but the move broke down as he had no support.

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Lincoln forced Glenn Morris to make a save from a breakaway attack from a deflected shot by Harry Anderson.

Young found Palmwer in a good position with a cross but his attempt on goal ended up going wide.

Camara forced Lincoln ‘keeper Grant Smith to make a fine save to with a shot from the edge of the box.

The Imps shoudl have taken the lead when Bruno Andrade’s cross found ex-Red John Akinde, who used his left put but put the ball wide from just a few yards in front of goal.

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Crawley went into the interval deservedly leading 1-0 through an own goal by another former-Red, Michael Bostwick who was trying to keep out a cross from wide by Morais, but infact put the ball in his own net.

Morris made a fine save early in the second half to keep out a header by Jason Shakell.

Lincoln’s Lee Frecklington was sent-off for a dangerous challenge on Mark Connolly, leaving the hosts to play more than half an hour with ten men.

The 8,000 strong crowd really got behind the home team, vcreating a superb atmosphere.

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But Reds didn’t buckle and managed to created a superb chance with ten minutes to go when Camara back-heeled to Ashley Nathaniel-George, who lifted his shot over the bar.

Finally in six minutes of added-time Akinde fired wide from in front of goal when it looked easier to score as Reds’ fans were given a happy journey back from Lincolnshire.

Crawley Town: Morris, Young, Connolly, Palmer, Francomb (Doherty 70), Nathaniel-George, Magurie, Bulman, Moraid, Camara, N’Gala

Unused subs: Mersin, McNerney, Poleon, Gambin, Randall

Lincoln City: Smith, O’Connor (McCartan 53), Shackell, Pett (Rhead 81), Frecklington, Andrade (Mensah 74), Toffolo, Bostwick, Eardley, Anderson, Akinde

Unused subs: Slocombe, Gordon, Wharton, Green

Attendance: 8,321 (81 away)

Ref: Matthew Donohue