KEWELL: WE ALL MUST BE UNITED
HARRY Kewell called for unity as his Crawley side lost their bottom-of-the-table clash with Cambridge.
Substitute Jabo Ibehre’s 63rd-minute strike saw the away side bag all three points to earn their first win of the season.
Crawley struck the woodwork twice through Mark Randall in the first half and then through Matt Harrold in the second half, while Uche Ikpeazu was denied by Glenn Morris when put clean through on goal.
Kewell said: “It was a frustrating game. I thought we dominated the opening part but then we took our foot off the gas and we let Cambridge come in with one or two chances.
“Prior to that we had three or four glorious chances to perhaps put the game out of reach but we allow teams to sneak in and we lost concentration when the goal happened.
“This season was never going to be easy and we will see certain characters stand up. But this isn’t just the players, it’s the staff, the owners and the fans, we have got to be one.”
The game made a blistering start with both sides exchanging chances. On six minutes, Randall’s curling shot from the edge of the box struck the bar.
At the other end, Ikpeazu found himself clear on goal but could only shoot tamely at Morris following Medy Elito’s through ball.
The ever-menacing Ikpeazu was later denied by Morris again following a clever turn and shot. On 32 minutes, Morris denied Luke Berry with a solid save after a scramble from a Cambridge free-kick.
The second half saw Ibehre open the scoring on 63 minutes on the rebound from Ikpeazu’s fierce left-footed strike.
Cambridge had David Forde to thank for keeping their lead on 67 minutes when he made an outstanding double save, first from Lewis Young’s deflected cross and then off Thomas Verheydt’s rebound.
The Reds were denied a point at the death when substitute Harrold’s shot cannoned off the post.
Victory sees Cambridge up to 17th and manager Shaun Derry was full of praise for his side’s resolve.
Derry said: “We’ve won this and only lost the first two games to top seven sides by one goal.
“I’m delighted with the result.
“For whatever reason the pressure mounts even though it’s only the third game of the season and it becomes a massive game, I don’t really know why. “Jabo was only on for ten minutes because he got injured on Friday and we took him to the last minute.
“We knew he could only be that impact man. But he was the ‘moment man’ and he got us that goal. “How many times do you see it, substitutes making big statements on the game and that’s what our subs did,” he concluded.