Crawley Have To Do It Again

Crawley Town's mystery signing made a dream start scoring on his debut, but the Reds and Aldershot will have to do it again in the FA Cup.

The mystery player was revealed as MK Dons', Mustapha Carayol, and the Gambia born winger made the kind of impact manager Steve Evans had promised the fans in the build up to the game.

On the half hour Pierre Joseph-Dubois stole the ball, played in Dannie Bulman who in turn rolled the ball to Carayol. Mustapha stepped onto his right foot, and struck a perfectly placed ball around Rhys Day and past the outstretched Nikki Bull into the net.

A dream start for the debutant, but despite dominating the first-half the home side weren't able to hold onto their advantage and will now travel to Hampshire for the replay, with a visit to either Stafford Rangers or Cambridge United awaiting the winners in the 1st round proper.

Before kick-off, Evans had a defensive headache to deal with. Pablo Mills had return to Rotherham United leaving Evans to push Glenn Wilson to centre-halve, Paul Watson made a steady debut at left-back, with Ronnie Bull on the right. Bull was forced off at the break, replaced by Lee Blackburn. Thomas Pinault missed the game also with a mouth infection and Jon-Paul Pittman made way for Pierre-Joseph-Dubois up front.

This was a proper cup tie, which could have gone either way. Nearly 2,000 supporters were inside the stadium, the largest attendance for over a year, creating a fantastic atmosphere.

It was a game of two halves with the Reds making all the running in the opening 45 minutes. In the opening ten minutes, Carayol wowed the Broadfield crowd with his pace and sent in two dangerous crosses into the box.

The Broadfield Stadium recently celebrated its tenth birthday, and Guy Madjo almost marked the celebration with a stunning goal on 17 minutes. Madjo controlled Bulman's pass on his chest and swung a first-time volley which crashed just wide of the target.

Carayol struck on the half-hour , and the Reds were flying, Tyrone Thompson sent Joseph-Dubois through one-on-one with the Shots 'keeper eight minutes later, but Bull pulled out a fine low save to keep the advantage to just a single goal.

Bull's save proved to be a pivotal moment in the tie and against the run of play former Reds forward Jonny Dixon drew the side's level on 56 minutes. Dixon was sent clear of the Crawley defence, Ashley Bayes came out to narrow the angle, but Dixon confidently slotted the ball past Bayes to level the tie with the visitors first effort on target.

Within two minutes of Dixon's leveller Paul Watson curled a free-kick just wide, and Carayol missed the target with the goal at his mercy from 10 yards inside the box.

Aldershot midfielder Scott Davis looked a quality player through out, and he crashed a volley down Bayes' throat with 15 minutes left of the game. Rhys Day unmarked headed wide from a corner with two minutes left of the ninety - he really should have scored.

Jon-Paul Pittman was brought down on the edge of the area on the 90th minute mark, but Watson's free-kick struck the wall and the teams will have to do it all again in the game on Tuesday night.

The Reds and Aldershot Town will now have to do battle for a 5^th time in 2007, and with two victories already at the Recreation Ground in this calendar year, who is to say it won't be a third time lucky for Crawley as well!

CRAWLEY TOWN LINE-UP

Ashley Bayes, Ronnie Bull (Lee Blackburn 46) , Jamie Stevens, Glenn Wilson, Paul Watson, Jamie Cook, Dannie Bulman, Tyrone Thompson, Mustapha Carayol (Magno Vieira 85), Guy Madjo, Pierre Joseph-Dubois (Jon-Paul Pittman 84)

Unused Subs: Joshua Clapham. James Krause

ALDERSHOT TOWN LINE-UP

Nikki Bull, Robert Gier, Louie Soares (Kirk Hudson 74), Ricky Newman Rhys Day, Anthony Straker, Lewis Chalmers, Scott Davies (Joel Grant 85), Ben Harding, Jonny Dixon, Rob Elvins (Danny Hylton 56)

Unused Subs: Anthony Charles, Mikhael Jaimez-Ruiz

Attendance: 1,934

Referee: G Scott

Source: www.crawleytownfc.net