Crawley Town 3 Leyton Orient 0
An explosive nine minute first half treble gave Reds a 3-0 victory at the expense of rock bottom Leyton Orient at the Checkatrade Stadium in Saturday's EFL 2 clash.
It was a day for set pieces as James Collins and Joe McNerney got on the end of two superb Josh Payne free kicks in the space of five minutes, before Andre Blackman’s deep free kick was latched onto by Enzio Boldewijn who nodded home to complete a nine-minute trio of first half goals.
It was the first time Crawley had scored three first-half goals in the League since April 2012 and our biggest home win of the campaign.
The Reds were unchanged from the side that earned a point at Grimbsy Town last weekend.
The game got off to a slow start, with the only attacking moments of note coming from the away side’s skipper Liam Kelly, who fired a shot wide after a good run into the box five minutes before hitting a long range effort over.
After a quiet opening the Reds took the lead after 22 minutes.
, who guided his header into the right-hand corner for his 20th goal of the season.
Collins
Payne swung in an excellent delivery which was met by
.McNerneyThings soon got even better just before the 30 minute mark, as another excellent free kick delivery from Payne was headed home superbly, this time by
To cap off an empathic nine minute period for Dermot Drummy’s men, their advantage was increased to 3-0, once again following a set piece.
, whose header past the onrushing keeper just crossed the line to treble the advantage.BoldewijnAndre Blackman’s deep free kick over the visiting defence was taken in his stride by
The Reds began the second half comfortably and in control, and skipper Jimmy Smith almost scored a replica of his third goal at Colchester in February on 53 minutes but his volley was saved after a quick throw in from Lewis Young.
Drummy made his first change moments later, with Kaby Djalo making way for Billy Clifford after feeling a tight groin.
60 minutes in and the home side put together arguably their best move of the game with Boldewijn, Lewis Young and Collins all linking up neatly down the right and teeing up Rhys Murphy, whose scrambled effort from close range was saved.
The Reds stayed in the driving seat as game entered the final 20 minutes and almost added a fourth but Murphy’s curled effort from 20 yards was just wide.
Crawley made a second change, with Josh Lelan replacing Blackman, who had impressed at left back.
Boldewijn had been a threat all afternoon and almost doubled his tally inside the last 15 minutes but his left-footed strike went the wrong side of the post.
Seconds later the same man had a glorious chance to add further gloss to the scoreline, firing Collins’ fierce cross off target from six yards.
That was the Dutchman’s last involvement, as Dean Cox came on against his former side for the last ten minutes in place of the Dutchman.
Top scorer Collins was named man of the match at the end of a much quieter half in which Crawley were happy to just see out a comfortable victory.
: Morris; Young, McNerney, Yorwerth, Blackman (sub: Lelan 73); Boldewijn (Cox 80), Smith, Payne, Djalo (Clifford 61), Murphy; Collins. Unused subs: Mersin, Bawling, Harrold, Henderson.Reds
: 2819 (722 Orient).
Attedance