1st Team v Crawley Green

No. 11    Saturday 21st September 2013.     Spartan South Midlands League – Division 1
Crawley Green                     3  (Chris Gibson 45, 47, Peter O’Donnell 49)
Kings Langley                      2 (Adam Hallissey 38, Jack Johnson 44)
Crawley Green and Kings Langley, two sides who have consistently challenged for promotion over several seasons, served up nearly forty minutes of poor and unentertaining football before the game sprang to life just before the break. Callum Adebiyi’s long pass enabled Adam Hallissey to break clear on the left wing and cut inside. With two of his previous crosses finding no takers, he elected to shoot from an acute angle and the ball squeezed under the body of keeper Bart Pedrycz. Sam Warrell’s quick thinking and even quicker free kick caught Green napping and put Hallissey clear again, who crossed for Jack Johnson to side foot home. A minute to go before the interval and Kings were on target for three points, but an inherent inability to defend a corner allowed a Chris Gibson header to bring Crawley back into the game. Two minutes into the second half and a right wing cross found Gibson totally unmarked in the inside left position and a simple header levelled the scoreline. It got even worse two minutes later when Ant Ladyman made a good save from the same striker, but an abject defence allowed Peter O’Donnell to reach the rebound first and score from close range. With the midfield out of sorts, long balls were dealt with easily by the towering home defence and Kings’ day of woe was complete when they were forced to play the last twelve minutes with ten men after losing Ritchie Hanlon through injury.