Crawley M4s v Saxons M 4s match report from Garry Cooper.

After significant availabilty issues across the club, M4s captain, Garry Cooper, called up no fewer than 5 M5s players to his match day squad for the away game at Crawley M4s. All 5 (Tim Laughton, James Heafield, Ed Money, Oli Bridges and Andrew Rowland) made outstanding contributions to an exceptional result against a top 4 team in the Martlets Division 4.

Saxons had to absorb early pressure from the Crawley push back, but took the lead on 9 minutes against the run of play. A good passing movement down the left flank ended with Heafield finding Joseph ‘JP’ Patel in the opposition D with an excellent through ball, and Patel expertly dispatch his swept effort past the Crawley keeper. The lead was short lived, however, as Crawley levelled the tie 3 minutes later. A scramble in the Saxons D, involving more than a hint of a foot from a Crawley player, was eventually converted past a helpless Murphy Reed, the Saxons keeper. As the half progressed Saxons grew into the game, and by the time that the half time whistle blew Saxons were well on top and unlucky to go in to the break at 1-1.

The second half began in the same vein as the end of the first, with Saxons on top. Superb midfield performances from Ben Kemsley, Matt Bate, Charlie Ogilvie, Heafield and Rowland, with great wing play from Patel and Toby Walker made sure that the excellent Laughton had plenty of sights of goal. In fact Saxons had the ball in the net 3 times in a 15 minute spell, but all were disallowed by the umpires. The winning goal did come on 59 minutes, however, when Heafield latched on to a loose ball in the Crawley D to fire into the net. The drama wasn’t over yet, though, and Crawley rallied to apply pressure on the Saxons defence for the closing minutes of the game, drawing 6 short corners in quick succession. The back four of Cooper, Money, Bridges and Reed stood firm, with some great saves from Reed, to see the game out, but not before Bate received a green card on 68 minutes for questioning an umpiring decision.