Creepy Crawley:2 U's:2
We’ve all seen things happen on a football pitch which defy any kind of sense or logic – remember this? Or this?
Now we can add the unbelievable sending off of Ben Farrell in yesterdays match at Crawley to that list. Having been shown a yellow card in the first half, the ginger genius surged into the box in the 76th minute but was halted by a challenge from Sam Rents. Undeterred, Faz picked himself up, and looked set to put in a cross until he was stopped in his tracks by a blast on the refs whistle.
Penalty to United perhaps? Oh no, referee Ian Cooper amazingly deemed that Farrell had taken a dive, despite the fact that no one appealed and the player had picked himself up and carried on playing. A second yellow, and the inevitable red, card followed. I do feel sorry for poor old Farrell, who has now been on the end of two absolutely scandalous refereeing clangers this season which have ended in dismissal.
And unfortunately this was just one of a host of awful awful decisions by Mr Cooper, a referee so clown-like they may as well have stuck a red nose on him and called him Krusty. It’s a sad day when I find myself agreeing with Neil Warnock, who I have just seen on ITV’s The Championship declaring that “there is no respect campaign”, but sadly he’s absolutely spot on; How can the players be expected to respect these jokers when they get no respect in return? Will Mr Cooper look at the video and admit he got it wrong? I doubt it. If he does, will anything happen to him in terms of sanctions? Again, I doubt it.
Anyway, back to the beginning, and once again I have to take my hat off to poor old deprived Steve Evans, still struggling manfully against the tide of extreme poverty: “I would dearly love a budget close to that [of Nigel Clough’s Burton Albion], never mind what is being spent by the big six or seven clubs in the Blue Square Premier,” he remarks in his programme notes. In the same article he welcomes a new signing, erstwhile Weymouth top scorer Michael Malcolm, who is presumably playing for nothing other than the love of Crawley Town and the honour of working alongside Super Paulie Raynor. Bless.
United once again lined up in a 4-3-3 formation, with captain for the day Beesley in the hole looking to feed Evil and Willmott. And once again, it all looked a little disjointed, with the U’s players staying huddled tightly in the centre while Crawley exploited the space on the flanks.
First chance of the match came the way of giant striker Steve Fletcher, who found space at the far post to reach Thomas Pinault’s cross but could only direct his header into the waiting arms of Potter. His opposite number, Simon Rayner (no relation), was perhaps a bit fortunate when his sliced clearance fell to Beesley, who could only lob the spinning ball wide from 30 yards with the goal gaping.
Malcolm saw a free kick deflected over by Wayne Hatswell before Crawley took the lead. Beesley gave the ball away in midfield, and Crawley broke down the right. Forrest whipped in a good cross which spun up off Josh Coulson’s leg, allowing Jon Paul-Pittman to drive the ball past the helpless Potter from eight yards. Young Josh should have perhaps cut the ball out, but it was a tidy finish from the muscular Pittman. 1-0.
Now we can add the unbelievable sending off of Ben Farrell in yesterdays match at Crawley to that list. Having been shown a yellow card in the first half, the ginger genius surged into the box in the 76th minute but was halted by a challenge from Sam Rents. Undeterred, Faz picked himself up, and looked set to put in a cross until he was stopped in his tracks by a blast on the refs whistle.
Penalty to United perhaps? Oh no, referee Ian Cooper amazingly deemed that Farrell had taken a dive, despite the fact that no one appealed and the player had picked himself up and carried on playing. A second yellow, and the inevitable red, card followed. I do feel sorry for poor old Farrell, who has now been on the end of two absolutely scandalous refereeing clangers this season which have ended in dismissal.
And unfortunately this was just one of a host of awful awful decisions by Mr Cooper, a referee so clown-like they may as well have stuck a red nose on him and called him Krusty. It’s a sad day when I find myself agreeing with Neil Warnock, who I have just seen on ITV’s The Championship declaring that “there is no respect campaign”, but sadly he’s absolutely spot on; How can the players be expected to respect these jokers when they get no respect in return? Will Mr Cooper look at the video and admit he got it wrong? I doubt it. If he does, will anything happen to him in terms of sanctions? Again, I doubt it.
Anyway, back to the beginning, and once again I have to take my hat off to poor old deprived Steve Evans, still struggling manfully against the tide of extreme poverty: “I would dearly love a budget close to that [of Nigel Clough’s Burton Albion], never mind what is being spent by the big six or seven clubs in the Blue Square Premier,” he remarks in his programme notes. In the same article he welcomes a new signing, erstwhile Weymouth top scorer Michael Malcolm, who is presumably playing for nothing other than the love of Crawley Town and the honour of working alongside Super Paulie Raynor. Bless.
United once again lined up in a 4-3-3 formation, with captain for the day Beesley in the hole looking to feed Evil and Willmott. And once again, it all looked a little disjointed, with the U’s players staying huddled tightly in the centre while Crawley exploited the space on the flanks.
First chance of the match came the way of giant striker Steve Fletcher, who found space at the far post to reach Thomas Pinault’s cross but could only direct his header into the waiting arms of Potter. His opposite number, Simon Rayner (no relation), was perhaps a bit fortunate when his sliced clearance fell to Beesley, who could only lob the spinning ball wide from 30 yards with the goal gaping.
Malcolm saw a free kick deflected over by Wayne Hatswell before Crawley took the lead. Beesley gave the ball away in midfield, and Crawley broke down the right. Forrest whipped in a good cross which spun up off Josh Coulson’s leg, allowing Jon Paul-Pittman to drive the ball past the helpless Potter from eight yards. Young Josh should have perhaps cut the ball out, but it was a tidy finish from the muscular Pittman. 1-0.
Mr Cooper was fairly quiet in the first half, although he did serve notice of what was to come by only cautioning Thomas Pinault for a nasty late lunge which left Gleeson in a heap on the touchline. One suspects it was perhaps the proximity of the incident to the Crawley bench that saved the French midfielder from a dismissal.
Anyway, the fun and games really started in the second half. United had spent the final 15 minutes of the first half and the first five of the second camped in and around the Crawley box, and won a corner in the 50th minute when Convery’s shot was deflected behind. The midfielder himself swung the corner over and the ref immediately blew his whistle and pointed to the spot. What the penalty was actually for remains unclear, but Big Lee wasn’t asking any questions, and drilled the kick high to Rayners left. 1-1.
Of course, when you get a soft penalty you always worry that the referee is going to want to even things up, and unfortunately he did just that by awarding the Red Devils an equally baffling spot kick. Rents launched a long free kick into our box, and as one of their players battled with two of ours, Mr Cooper spotted another infringement. Pinault made no mistake with the penalty, as Potter helpfully dived out of the way. 2-1.
More controversy followed as Farrell’s header appeared to be blocked on the line by the hand of Giles. Nothing doing said the Cooperman, who was now awarding a string of soft free kicks in the home sides favour, as their players went to ground, shall we say, a little easily. The only real chance they had was when Pittman got free again but fired wide with Potter at his mercy.
Then came the two sending’s off. Farrell was soon followed down the tunnel by Rents, who launched a horrific two-footed, knee-high assault on Challinor which left the midfielder with a serious looking injury. Even Cooper could hardly get that decision wrong.
Jardim replaced Challinor (a substitution which could have happened a bit earlier to be honest), and as the match ticked into seven minutes of injury time, United came up with a deserved equaliser.
Convery, who had been the subject of much abuse from yours truly throughout the game, picked up a loose ball midway inside the Crawley half, and advanced a few metres before cracking in a terrific low shot which fizzed into the corner beyond the helpless Rayner. Cue bedlam amongst the United faithful; it felt like we’d won the world cup rather than scraped a point in a Conference game, as the pent up anger of all the injustices suffered at the hands of the man in black exploded in a wave of joy.
Given the circumstances and the quality of the opposition, a draw isn't a bad result. We really need a win tomorrow night against York though, otherwise we are going to start losing touch with the leaders.
Man of the Match: Dan Gleeson - Covered a lot of ground to provide width in attack, as well as for the most part defending assiduously.
Toilets of the Match: The Broadfield Stadium is an archetypal new non-league ground, but the toilets in the away end are certainly of Premier League quality. It makes you wonder why they didn't use some of their lavatory budget on more important things, such as building a fourth stand to go along the far side of the pitch.
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