Incredible home form continues, but where are the crowds? - Crawley Town opinion

With no Bulman, Palmer, Grego-Cox in the squad this gave a first league start to Ricardo German up front alongside Ashley Nadesan, with George Francomb taking the captain's armband from Bulman.

The only disappointing aspect of the run is that the local support is still failing to increase in numbers, again it was just over 2,000 who turned up to watch a great entertaining game.

The 3-0 victory was the biggest win for Crawley for some time, but at the start of the game and for much of the first half it was the visitors Oldham who created the better chances.

The visitors came to Crawley on the back of a 5-0 home win against Newport County the previous weekend and it was the home keeper Glenn Morris who was the busier during the first half when again showing why he is the best keeper in the league.

He is in great form and the double save he made stopping Oldham from taking the lead was brilliant. It was the new strike partnership that opened the scoring when a great cross ball by Nadesan fell to the feet of German and he out muscled the defender to fire past the keeper for his first goal for Crawley and his first in the football league since signing from Hendon last summer.

When the Latics former Middleborough/Bolton Premier League player David Wheater went off injured late on in the first half and with no central defender replacement on the bench had to reshuffle their defence they lost their momentum going forward

Crawley went into the break with the slender advantage, and in the second half took the game to Oldham with great success adding two more goals from Nadesan again, his third in three matches and again chipping the advancing keeper and finally Bez Lubala from the penalty spot having been brought down.

The visitors were now being penned in their own half for long periods and when they did attack it was well marshalled by the Crawley defenders enabling them to keep another clean sheet.

Yems made substitutes that actually changed the game with German, Ferguson and Sesay being replaced by Jack Powell, Tarryn Allarakhia and Panutche Camara all of whom got into the game very quickly and it was from a great pass from Allarakhia that set up Nadesan for the second. Powell slotted into midfield and started to show what an influential player he could be given more playing time.

Crawley could have easily have doubled the score line with the chances created such was their second half domination but despite this the fans went away extremely happy and in a buoyant mood. I must say that the atmosphere being created in the stadium by the supporters is improving week on week, it does make a difference and I’m sure that the players are encouraged by it.

I have always said that the only statistic that counts is how many times you put the ball in the net, looking at the BBC breakdown Crawley made more use of the time that they were in possession surprising low at 37% than Oldham considering the second half performance.

Since Yems and Bradbury were appointed the Red Devils have only lost three in 18 matches – let’s hope that this form continues at Port Vale next Saturday, which will be another strong test for the team.

UP UP and AWAY

With now only five away matches remaining this season, our next trip is to Port Vale on the 14th March, the Valiant’s are another team who are on a push for the play-offs so it’s going to be another challenging match for the Red Devils. We are again running a supporters coach and so far 26 have booked on, we depart from the stadium at 7.30am and have a buffet booked at the Cross Keys, Castle Donnington. Cost of the trip is £20.00 and included the buffet. We are taking coach bookings for all remaining away matches this season - see our website for full details. Please contact us to book on either Alain on 07771-792346 or Patrick via Twitter/Facebook.