Crystal Palace win makes me quietly confident about the campaign that lies ahead - Crawley Town opinion

They started with a victory although everyone knows not to read too much into the results of pre-season friendlies.

Nevertheless they defeated Crystal Palace U23s which can’t be bad even if the Eagles face the same problems as we do in picking up the traces. They are a Premier League club after all.

Manager John Yems was non-committal in his post match interview and didn’t give anything much away about how he felt his charges had performed either individually or collectively.

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The supporters would have welcomed his views as no spectators were allowed and the club had issued a rather grim warning to any who thought they might sneak in to watch unobtrusively. The video highlights will have brought some encouragement.

Crystal Palace took the lead with an elegantly curling drive from the edge of the penalty area. It was placed to perfection and beyond the reach of a despairing leap by Glenn Morris. The Reds’ responses were different in style but equally high in quality.

The equaliser came from the head of Sam Ashford and was an excellent first goal at League level for the striker who was recently signed from non league Hemel Hempstead Town. He was full of praise for the pinpoint free kick taken by Brian Galach and his downward reverse header left the Palace keeper without a prayer.

That was not the last we saw of the diminutive Galach who added to his assist with an excellent winning goal. He skilfully controlled a lofted headed pass from Ashley Nadesan on his chest, took one stride and from a narrow angle swept the ball low into the far corner of the goal from ten yards.

That is a case of so far, so good but it is understandable if no one is getting excited yet. The return to action, however, has done nothing to alter my personal feeling of being quietly confident about the campaign that lies ahead.

There has been other good news during the week for Crawley’s travelling fans. The EFL won their Appeal Hearing over the punishment due to Macclesfield Town for financial irregularities, the outcome being a further deduction of points that deposited the Silkmen at the foot of the table and saw their relegation to the National League.

That decision reprieves Stevenage and brings us the encouragement of a “local derby”. A return road trip of 165 miles counts as such for well-travelled Reds fans and most will welcome the decision for that reason.

Perhaps inevitably we should revert to counting chickens as Macclesfield Town are looking into further legal action based partly on the fact there is, as yet, no definite start date for the National League. Watch this space.