The Reds face another trip on the road this weekend as they travel to the West Midlands to take on Walsall. Darrell Clarke’s men occupy 12th place in the table sitting just one point ahead of Town who currently sit in 13th.
SCENE SETTER:
The Reds come off the back of a very impressive home win as they defeated high flying Bradford last Saturday. A brace from Ollie Palmer was enough to see off the promotion hopefuls. Crawley’s first goal came after good work from the number nine Palmer as he shrugged off two Bradford defenders and volleyed past Richard O’Donnell. Palmer scored his second five minutes before the break after Ashley Nadesan squared a delightful ball across the box allowing him to smash in off the bar and give Crawley some breathing space going into the interval.
Walsall have won two of their last three league fixtures but fell to defeat in their last after losing on the road to Cheltenham. Max Sheaf opened the scoring for the hosts in the 18th minute which was the only real action of the first half. Connor Thomas and Alfie May added the second and third after the break before Elijah Adebayo netted a consolation ten minutes before the end meaning they still sit 12th in the table, a point above the Reds
TEAM NEWS:
Reds will continue to be without Reece Grego-Cox and Joe McNerney, however George Francomb should return to the squad.
PREVIOUS MEETINGS:
Reds lost the reverse fixture to our hosts 3-2 at The People’s Pension Stadium. However, when the sides met back in August goals from Filipe Morais, Tom Dallison and Ashley Nadesan gave Reds a 3-2 win at the Bescot in the Carabao Cup first round.
Reds have a good record against Walsall with only two losses in eight previous meetings. Jonathan Forte got an 81st-minute equaliser in a 2-2 draw in November 2012 after Billy Clarke had scored in the first half. The November 2013 meeting finished goalless and in October 2014 Conor Henderson’s late free kick sealed a 1-0 victory. All those games were in League One. Away from home we have won 2-1, drawn 2-2 and lost 5-0 - that was in April 2015 and was the last league game between the clubs.
IN CHARGE:
Referee: Sebastian Stockbridge
Chris Isherwood and Wayne Grunnill
Fourth Official : Christopher Husband
TICKETS AND HOW TO BUY:
Click here for all your ticketing information for tomorrow's fixture.
HOW THEY BET:
A home win is marked as 23/20 a draw 9/4 and an away win 9/4
For more odds got to www.skybet.com please gamble responsibly.
