KEWELL’S OFF MARK WITH A STUNNER
HARRY Kewell gave his side full marks in every department after they produced a stunning three-goal victory against the early season League Two leaders Swindon at the County Ground.
It was against the run of play that Kewell’s men took the lead late in the first half as Olly Lancashire put into his own net.
But after that theynever looked back to earn Kewell a first win as manager.
“I am really proud of the way they performed. They worked hard here and they worked together as a team,” said Kewell.
“We certainly created enough chances to win the game and in the second half we controlled it.”
Swindon did have four credable goal attempts before Crawley opened the scoring, but that did not surprise Kewell.
“It was always going to be tough coming here to Swindon,” he added, “because they are a big club with big ambitions this season.
“They did put pressure on us, but we weathered the storm and our goalkeeper Glenn Morris had an excellent game.”
The result proved it is to too early to look at league tables and suggest the destination of honours and relegations that will be handed out in the first week of May next year.
However, the first 35 minutes of action at the County Ground did reflect the fact that Swindon began the match at the top of League Two while Crawley were propping up the bottom of the table.
From a constant stream of attacks they might have led but Lancashire headed over with the goal at his mercy and Dion Conroy hit the bar from a similar position. They were also denied by two brilliant blocking saves from Morris that denied Luke Norris an opener.
And having previously offered no threat of their own Crawley needed a major contribution from Swindon to take a shock lead.
A right-wing cross from Lewis Young appeared to offer little threat but under pressure from Jordan Roberts, Lancashire headed the ball into his own net.
From then on it was just a question of time as Crawley took charge and tried to put the game out of Swindon’s reach.
Crawley eventually scored their second 11 minutes from time when winger Jordan Roberts’ shot was deflected wide of the reach of Swindon keeper Lawrence Vigouroux. And in the 85th minute captain Jimmy Smith completed an afternoon of misery for Swindon as he swept home a low shot to seal Crawley’s win.
Swindon boss Dave Flitcroft made no attempt to hide his disappointment, saying: “We did well to energise the fans for the first half-hour.
“After they scored I would never in a million years have expected us to down tools and not recover.
“But the way my players played in the second half is not what I am about or what Swindon is about. And it was totally unacceptable.”