Nick Tsaroulla opened the scoring after just 6 minutes as Crawley Town comfortably beat Newport County 4-1 on a very sunny September Saturday at the Broadfield Stadium.
Both Adam Campbell and Ben Gladwin also scored, but it was the 24-year-old wing-back who arrowed a low strike from the edge of the box past Nick Townsend to give the Reds the perfect start. The lead lasted a mere minutes, as Omar Bogle equalised for the visitors with a ferocious strike from 18 yards as the clock struck 10 minutes.
Despite the scores being level, Crawley largely dominated proceedings in the first half and went close to scoring once more through Ronan Darcy, who looked lively down the right-hand side.
Today’s game also included mandatory water breaks at the halfway point of each half, as the two sides fought tooth and nail for every ball in temperatures north of 30 degrees Celsius.
With just over 10 minutes to play in the first half, Liam Kelly lashed a volley from range which hurtled towards goal, but it was claimed well by Newport's keeper. Meanwhile, at the other end, Crawley goalkeeper Corey Addai was largely untested throughout large parts of the first half, but looked cool (yes, even in the current weather!), calm and collected whenever he was called into action.
The second half sprang into life when, on the rebound, Adam Campbell rifled home a shot from inside the area to restore the Crawley lead.
With just over half of the second period played, Campbell bagged himself a brace, curling home a truly beautiful effort from range.
Omar Bogle then thought he too had his second of the day, following a goalmouth scramble, but the striker, who lists teams such as Cardiff City and Wigan Athletic amongst his previous employers, was offside when he converted and duly saw his effort ruled out.
Reds captain Ben Gladwin then scored a goal of his own – a daisy cutter from range – the perfect way for the number 7 to mark his first home start since April the 29th.
Newport’s Will Evans had a chance to score his eighth league goal of the season as the clock crept towards 90 minutes, but his header arced narrowly over the bar. That chance was about as close as the visitors came to a reply across the duration of second half.
Crawley saw out the eight additional minutes of time at the end of the second half without any issue and thus claimed a brilliant win which sees them end the day in the top 10 of the Sky Bet League Two table.
REDS XI: Addai, Darcy (Khaleel 83'), Wright, Ransom (Johnson 45'), Maguire (Forster 83'), Tsaroulla, Kelly, Williams, Campbell (Lolos 83'), Gladwin (Roles 87'), Orsi
Attendance: 2949 (286 away)
