Crawley earned a point yesterday evening against an in-form Oldham Athletic side led by John Sheridan. Ashley Nadesan’s quickfire double gave Yems’ men a second-half lead, but Christopher Missilou’s impressive strike levelled the scores.
Five minutes into the first half, Crawley had their first chance of the game as the ball was switched to Will Ferry on the right who played it nicely to Jack Payne who then put a beautiful cross into the box, Hutchinson took the ball down and placed it into the bottom corner past Rogers, however, the linesman raised his flag for offside and the game stayed level.
Crawley continued to pile on the pressure as Powell played Nichols through who chopped inside and dribbled past two defenders before bending one with his right foot but the shot was cleared before it could hit the target.
Crawley continued to come close to breaking the deadlock as Jack Powell stepped up to take a corner which was cleared by Oldham but fell to Hutchinson on the edge of the box, after bringing the ball down he struck it and the ball deflected off an Oldham defender and bounced off the crossbar.
Truly dominating the game another chance fell to Crawley after some good possession play, Hutchinson chipped the ball into the box and Nichols rose high but the header was straight into the hands of Rogers.
After the break, Crawley continued their momentum into the second half as an impressive link-up between Hutchinson and Nadesan saw Hutchinson through one-on-one with the ‘keeper but he chose to drill the ball across the box into Nichols, after the ball scrambled further it eventually fell to Powell whose shot was tipped over the bar by Rogers.
Despite a bright start for Crawley in the second half, Hallam Hope was played through on the left and used his pace to break through the defence, placing the ball in the top-right corner perfectly with power putting Oldham in the lead.
However, Oldham’s lead only lasted a couple of minutes as Craig headed long towards Nichols who teed up Nadesan with a neat touch and blasted the ball first time on the edge of the box into the bottom-left corner bringing Crawley level.
Crawley didn’t stop there and used their momentum from the equaliser to keep pushing and only minutes after equalising, Nadesan got himself a brace and put Crawley in the lead as he made a pacey run which split the Oldham defence before slotting the ball cooly into the bottom-right corner putting Yems’ men 2-1 up.
Ten minutes after celebrating going in the lead, Crawley held their heads in their hands as Christopher Missilou’s fine strike on the edge of the box crashed against the post and went in past Morris, bringing the game level at 2-2 in the 71st minute.
Crawley looked to grab a winner late on in the game, as Jack Powell stepped over a free-kick which was driven low into the box, falling to substitute Mark Marshall just inside the box, who hit it first time but blocked by an Oldham defender.
Manager John Yems was shown a red card in the dying stages of the game, as it finished level at The People’s Pension Stadium, leaving Crawley sat 12th in the league table.
Reds XI: Morris; Lynch, Craig, Tunnicliffe; Ferry, Powell, Payne, Tsaroulla (Davies 75’), Hutchinson (Marshall 81’), Nichols, Nadesan.
Attendance: 1927 (248 away)
Report by Mitchell Packham
