Crawley Down Gatwick bow out of League Cup

Crawley Down Gatwick 1 Wick & Barnham United 3

By Mike May

If they don’t get reinforcements in sooner rather than later Crawley Down Gatwick will surely be candidates for relegation.

They lack a midfield general who can boss the middle of the park.

More importantly they also need someone to put the ball in the net on a regular basis as the resident strikers are just not good enough.

Anvils started the better of the sides with an early Josh Alcock cross being taken by keeper Jordan Matthews, on 12 minutes Steve Major setup Mo Shuga’a whose fierce shot was again claimed by Matthews.

Down suddenly had a change of fortune seven minutes before half-time when Shuga’a wwnt on another charge down the left crossed for Major to get infront of his marker and head the Anvils in front.

It was now Wick’s turn to stretch the Anvils defence with Harper shaking off a defender but firing at Bos yet again. On 40 minutes they restored parity when from a counter-attack Hutchins was on hand to drive home the equaliser.

For the start of the second half an early Anvil substitution with the injured Charlie Dodd being replaced by James Upton, but another Anvil setback came on 49 when the burly Ash Harper bustled his way through a hesitant Anvil defence to notch the visitors’ second.

On 52 minutes Ciaran Steers aided by full-back Jacob Wright were making good progress down the right flank and several times.

On the hour Steers had a dip from 30 yards that just cleared the bar, on 64 minutes Anvils replaced the ineffective Grant Rigler with Steve Haliday, just after another Shuga’a free-kick caused a scramble in the visitors box before being cleared.

But the counter was never far away and on 62 minutes Wick dangerman Hutchins put in a cross that the oncoming Matt Noble could only head against the upright.

From yet another long ball in the 69th minute Harper was able to smash home his second and the visitors’ third.

Crawley Down: Bos, Cooney, Wright, Shuga’a, Johnson, Dodd (Upton), Steers, Cane, Major, Rigler (Haliday), Alcock

Unused subs: Goodwin, Burroughs, Jackson.

Man of the Match: Scott Johnson