STRIKER TUBBS BACK IN SADDLE
“It’s bounced low, hit Andy Butler’s head and then hit his arm which is down by his side. For me, that’s not deliberate handball.
“Unfortunately it will probably come under the referee’s interpretation of handball – but it’s never a handball. And if it is, he would be giving handball an awful lot during the game.
“I thought we were excel- lent – we were camped in their half both halves but unfortunately we didn’t get a few breaks.”
Tubbs stroked home the penalty after Simpson’s contentious call and doubled the lead five minutes into the second half, nodding home after an excellent turn, run and cross from Clarke.
Mike Jones almost made it 3-0 but his mesmerising solo run ended with a shot that crashed against the crossbar .
Walsall were thrown a couple of lifelines as Sam Mantom fired home off the post to bring them back in it and Clarke received a second yellow for kicking the ball away but Crawley held out.
Delighted Crawley boss John Gregory, who labelled the spot-kick ‘a million per cent penalty’ said: “We’ve not played for four weeks and to put in that type of high-tempo performance was extraordinary.
“It just shows you how well the lads have looked after themselves.
“Because as much as we’ve worked with them on the training ground, they’ve still got to look after themselves when they are away from us.
“It shows you their professionalism and then we’ve lost a player with 20 minutes to go but we’ve still battled away and won at an exceptionally difficult place to win.”