The Reds recorded an impressive 9-0 victory against East Grinstead Town this evening. Four different trialists were on the scoresheet, with one scoring four well-taken goals in a professional performance from Betsy's side.
Kevin Betsy named a much-changed XI to the one that started against Queens Park Rangers last Saturday. Aramide Oteh was leading the line for the Reds, with Mark Marshall serving as captain.
The Reds began the game firmly on the front foot and had created a fair few chances within the opening ten minutes. It felt like an opener was only minutes away, and sure enough, a trialist gave Crawley the lead shortly after. A delightful ball was delivered into the Grinstead box, where a trialist was waiting to guide a perfectly placed header into the back of the net.
Just moments later, the Reds had a second goal. The Grinstead goalkeeper held on to the ball for too long inside his own box and found himself getting chased down by another Crawley trialist. The ball ricocheted off of the Crawley man, which allowed for a simple tap-in to make it two.
The third followed soon after as the scorer of the first Crawley goal fired home his second goal of the evening. The trialist picked the ball up on the edge of the box and fired a lethal strike into the opposite corner, which left the Grinstead goalkeeper no chance.
A fourth goal was added before half-time, and once again, a trialist was at the heart of it. A short corner was played into the feet of a trialist, who attempted to bend an effort toward goal. The shot appeared to be heading off-target but took a cruel deflection off of a yellow and black shirt and ended up in the back of the Grinstead net.
The Reds began the second half with several changes as Rafiq Khaleel, Mustafa Hussein, Florian Kastrati, Szymon Kowalczyk and two trialists were introduced for Crawley.
Crawley immediately went in search of a fifth goal, and it was only the post that denied a Crawley trialist his hat-trick. The ball was beautifully fed through to the Reds’ frontman, who beat the keeper but failed to find the target.
Luckily for the trialist, the hat-trick was just around the corner. Rafiq Khaleel forced a great save from the Grinstead goalkeeper, but the ball fell kindly to trialist, who tapped home into an empty net.
The goals kept flowing for Crawley. Trialist added his fourth goal from inside the box shortly after scoring his third. He then went on to win a penalty, which another trialist dispatched into the bottom corner for Crawley’s seventh goal.
A fourth trialist added the eighth and ninth goals late on with two brilliant strikes.
The Reds continued to dominate the fixture for the remainder of the match and claimed an impressive 9-0 victory.
STARTING XI: Addai, Silva, Ransom, Adebowale, Gallacher, Trialist, Trialist, Trialist, Marshall, Trialist, Oteh
