‘Deserved to Win’ – Crawley Town Reaction To FA Cup Tie

December 3, 2024 Gary Crawley, Lincoln City, Opposition View 1

Credit Graham Burrell

The Imps won 4-3 in a thrilling FA Cup second-round tie against Crawley, writes Kyle Fox.

Rob Elliot ended the afternoon disappointed with his side’s performance and the fact that they conceded four goals. Red Devils fans online shared their frustration due to another defeat and their bad habit of leaking goals this season.

The first and second rounds of the FA Cup always have the possibility of being a bad day. Either a bad game of football, bad atmosphere/crowd attendance, a bad result against a lower league side, an outright predicted win or a bad performance. Anything like this is possible in the early rounds, so we see upsets so often in the competition. The most recent example for City was last season at home to Morecambe, a bad result against a side in the division below.

A bad day – Credit Graham Burrell

However, our game in the first round against Chesham away was a very mature and professional performance against a lower league side where we got the right result. Then, against Crawley in the second round it turned in to one of the rarer truly entertaining games in the FA cup. Especially involving two teams in the same division. It was an amazing game with four goals in the first half and three in the second half which saw Lincoln end up 4-3 winners after going 2-0 down in the first 15 minutes.

Rob Elliot felt it was the right result and that Lincoln were deserved winners in the end. He said in his post-match interview, “I don’t think it was ever going to be an easy afternoon against probably the best team we’ve played. One of the strongest squads as well- Fair play to Lincoln, I thought they deserved to win. They could’ve scored multiple times on the break.”

It must’ve felt like déjà vu to all Lincoln fans when they saw or heard that we had gone 1-0 down and then just three minutes later we had gone 2-0 down. I know that’s how it felt to me at the time, sat there seeing both notifications in quick succession thinking ‘surely not again?’. Watching the goals back on the highlights as well, it seemed like very poor defending for both of their first half goals.

Credit Graham Burrell

For the first goal, Erik Ring is unfortunate as his clearance hits Sean Roughan, which causes the ball to spin into the path of Ibrahim for Crawley. He is then able to recycle the ball and play it out wide to the left. Adeyemo then stretches to get a ball in to the box which lacked power but still found Roles. It was far too easy as all our defensive players were static and unaware of Role’s movement in the box. He latched on to the end of the cross and slotted it home past Wickens.

The second is different as it comes from the ball dropping in the middle of the park, Moylan sticks a toe out and wins it in front of one of their players. It is then intercepted by another Crawley player and is sent forward towards O’Connor. He battles with Showumni to win the ball, misjudging where the ball falls and ends up stepping over it slightly. That allows the Crawley man to step in and nick the ball, ending up in behind our defence and finishes it past Wickens.

Rob Elliot also spoke about both of these goals in his interview, “Started really well, everything we wanted to do we did it really well.”

Credit Graham Burrell

A bit later on in the first half, Ethan Hamilton, who by all accounts had a great game and worked relentlessly, was pressing aggressively and won the ball back just outside Crawley’s area and forced a save from their keeper with a decent shot. It was the first of a number of saves from young Eddie Beach who gave a good account of himself in the Crawley goal despite conceding four.

His manager had this to say about his performance, “He was excellent, especially when we’re losing the game. We’re going forward, he’s always going to be exposed. I thought he defended the goal really well. He moved the ball really well.”

 

City’s first goal came from defensive errors on Crawley’s part this time. the ball was bouncing around the box after a free kick and we managed to regain it on the edge of the box through Erik Ring. He lays it off to the overlapping Jack Moylan who floats a cross back in the box and Paudie O’Connor rises highest to win the header and guide it home.

Our second came through some simple but effective play. A short throw in from Darikwa to the feet of Draper who gave it straight back. Darikwa then stopped the ball and hit a straight cross in to the box to the head of Jovon Makama who beat the keeper to the ball, looping it over his head into a now empty net. The goal I was most pleased to see go in, I was delighted for Jovon.

Credit Graham Burrell

This was something else pointed out by Rob Elliot who mentioned in his interview our ‘great threat from set pieces’ and how his side didn’t deal with it well enough alongside the crosses we put into the box. He said, “They’re always going to be a big threat from crosses, they’re the best in the league at it.”

We created more chances through that and Darikwa and Draper both had headed chances one after the other and the keeper did very well to save them both.

The tide had massively turned in this game by now as the players came out for the second half. We started very strongly and very aggressively and got our reward very early on. The ball is flicked on after a long throw comes in which bounces out to Erik Ring on the edge of the 18 yard box. He blasts it first time and the placement didn’t matter as the power was too much, rifling into the back of the net. A sublime strike.

goal Credit Graham Burrell

Our fourth goal was delightful. A hooked clearance from O’Connor lands to Draper and the ball goes out slightly right to find Makama’s run, laying it off for Erik Ring’s overlap and he plays if across the box for Moylan to score with a lovely little flicked finish. O’Connor came close not long later with a header from another free kick which forced another save from Beach.

The goals still hadn’t finished yet, Crawley pushed forward to try and get back into the game and got another one back through Kelly to make it a very nervy end to the game for Lincoln. It was a lovely first time finish from 20 yards out right into the corner.

Rob Elliot reflected on this too on his interview speaking on his pride for his players, “I’m not going to criticize these lads because they’ve given us everything. – I’m extremely proud of them for what they’ve done.”

 

 

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