GROUNDHOG DAY AT BARTON

The above famous film stars Bill Murray who is doomed to relive the same day over and over again until he gets it right. We endured the same experience at Barton Rovers ground on Wednesday night after we repeated what happened 4 weeks previously at Leighton Town.

On that occasion we also had a pre game downpour that made the playing surface soggy and difficult and we also found ourselves chasing a lost cause in no time at all. It took Leighton 29 minutes to take a 3 goal lead, Crawley Green did it 6 minutes quicker. In both games we improved in the second half but by then the contest was effectively over.

We were again missing a long list of players particularly in defence which meant that Luke Little had to drop back from centre forward to an unfamiliar role of left back to replace Jack Sunderland the latest addition to the injury list.

Our hosts had recently drafted in a couple of quality strikers in Danny Watson (an ex England Schoolboy) and Josh Bamford who normally play at a more senior level and together with regular striker Charlie Clayton (who has scored 27 goals this season) they ran riot in the first half.

Pat Daly set the home side on their way with a goal after only 5 minutes then a brace from Bamford in the 21st and 23rd minutes meant it was virtually game over with only a quarter of the game gone. It could have been worse as the home side hit the bar and post and missed some other good opportunities.

Defensively we were all over the place and we were not much better going forward. Our only genuine effort on goal was a shot from George Carbery in the 28th minute which Player/Manager Dean Bull punched away to safety.

So a grim first half finished with the home side in total control with a 3 goal lead. HT Score 3-0.

As we did at Leighton we improved in the second half and a change to 5 at the back with Tommy Twelves dropping into central defence gave us greater stability. Of course it could be that our opponents were happy to sit on their lead and hit us on the break but we can take a small slice of solace from a much better display.

Luke Dunstan was again outstanding and his terrific early run and cross set up an opportunity which Jack Read put wide. We were playing much better but Dean Bull was hardly being stretched in the home goal.

On the hour it was great to see Elliott Goward come off the bench following a period out injured and he quickly made a difference. We were not exactly peppering the home goal but the Crawley defenders were now required to break into a sweat. Elliott hit the bar from a free kick and Max Hercules, who along with Joe Fitzgerald worked tirelessly in midfield, shot just wide after beating the keeper to a long pass.

A tiny window of opportunity opened with 6 minutes of normal time left and it was a just reward for a good spell of pressure when Chris Vardy, who had also come on as a second half sub, swung in a fine cross with his left foot and Luke Dunstan got the faintest of touches (or so he says!) to reduce the deficit to 3-1.

At last some opportunities started to open up for us with Elliott having a shot deflected wide and then just failing to reach a lovely cross from Vards after be broke free down the left. Any hope that we could get anything out of the game was dashed right on time when against the run of play Tyler Ingham smashed a shot past Lewis Tood.

There was still time for us to get another goal to make the score line a bit more respectable when Ben Johnson did very well to battle his way to the bye line then squeeze out a cross despite the big presence of Dean Bull which Elliott Goward volleyed home to make the final score 4-2. FT Score 4-2.

We have one more league game left with a trip to Harpenden Town on Saturday. This will be another difficult game as our hosts are 4th in the table and still have an outside chance of finishing second so they will go all out for a win.

Than on Tuesday we have one last chance of some silver ware when we travel to Berkhamsted for a St Marys Cup semi-final game. Hopefully we will have some players back for that game as it would be great to finish the season with a cup final


Teams:

CG:1 Dean Bull (Capt) 2 Sam Peversall 3 Sam Willet 4 James Bishop (16 Jordan Brown 54) 5 Sam Pemberton 6 Connor Richardson 7 Charlie Clayton 8 Tyler Ingham 9 Danny Watson 10 Pat Daly (12 Sodiq Thompson 35) 11 Josh Bamford (14 Cameron Veazey 74). Sub not used: 15 Craig Meyrick.

TA:1 Lewis Todd 2 Ben Johnson 3 Luke Little 4 Tommy Twelves 5 Steve Nott-Macaire 6 Joe Fitzgerald 7 George Carbery (14 Elliott Goward 60) 8 Sam Joliffe (Capt) 9 Jack Read (12 Chris Vardy 71) 10 Max Hercules 11 Luke Dunstan. Sub not used: 15 Ryan McMahon.

Scorers:

CG:Pat Daly (5), Josh Bamford (21, 23), Tyler Ingham (90)

TA:Luke Dunstan (84), Elliott Goward (90+1)

Crowd:32

CG Website:https://www.clubwebsite.co.uk/crawleygreenfc01/

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