Tomlin makes his point for Crawley
GAVIN TOMLIN rescued a point for lowly Crawley but both sides ended the game with ten men after a 90th-minute melee.
Striker Tomlin beat the offside trap before he coolly clipped the ball in after Gary Roberts had given the visitors the lead just before the hour mark.
Reds attacker Izale McLeod and Spireites leftback Daniel Jones were shown straight red cards after both players wrestled with each other off the ball, as tempers boiled over in stoppage time.
Yet Crawley boss John Gregory believed the game was played in a good spirit. He said:“It was a game where two teams played well and the red cards left a bad taste.
“To be fair to the referee he had no real choice but he would have got a lot of praise to use some common sense as the game wasn’t like that.
“Shaun Miller and Matt Harrold can come in for Izale and if they play well they could get a long run in the side.”
Spireites boss Paul Cook agreed with his counterpart.
He said:“I’m very disappointed about the reds at the end. It wasn’t a game like that.
“I don’t think the game deserved them.The fourth official gave it, so I’ll go and watch the incident again and then go and talk to him.”
The hosts struck Tommy Lee’s left-hand post twice, as Jimmy Smith blasted his shot into the upright before Ryan Dickson’s glancing header narrowly failed to hit the target.The Spireites took the lead against the run of play when Keith Keane conceded possession in midfield before Roberts opted to fire past Lewis Price.
Former Southend man Tomlin then scored his first goal for Crawley as he timed his run to beat the offside trap before clipping over ‘keeper Lee.
“I think the result is a fair one,” Cook said.
“Crawley had some good spells in the game and we bossed some of the game.
“It felt like a game where the team that scored first would go on to win, so we are very disappointed to have lost after we scored.
“Our fans were great.To travel all that way just a couple of weeks before Christmas is extraordinary.” The Reds have drawn five games on the spin, in a run of six unbeaten, but only sit three points above the relegation zone.
“It is a good game for Crawley,” former Aston Villa boss Gregory said.
“We’re now six games unbeaten but we have had seven draws this season and they all could have turned in to three points.
“In the last six weeks we have lacked fire and passion but this time we got both in abundance.
“We usually have a good first 45 minutes and a poor second 45 minutes, or vice versa but here we had it from the first minute to the last.”