HARRY COOL ON PLAY-OFF CHANCES
HARRY Kewell played down Crawley’s chances of making the League Two play-offs despite this convincing result against Grimsby.
Jimmy Smith’s first-half penalty was added to after the break by Karlan Ahearne-Grant and Enzio Boldewijn as Crawley made it seven wins in eight games.
They are now just four points outside the play-off places but Kewell insisted: “While everyone is talking about those eight games we have still 14 more to play and that’s a long, long way to go.
“But I was pleased with this win because in the first half when we were put under pressure we did very well defensively and kept a clean sheet
“Then having got a penalty we created some good chances and we scored two well-taken goals in the second half.”
The first half had looked destined to be goalless, but not because either side lacked attacking ambitions. It was purely the saves produced by the two goalkeepers.
Crawley’s Glenn Morris had to get down quickly to block a low, close-range effort from Mallik Wilks.
At the other end just seconds apart Ben Killip not only got his body in the way of Dannie Bulman’s angled shot but quickly climbed back to his feet to deny Thomas Verheydt’s attempt to net the rebound.
The pattern, however, was broken in added time when Boldewijn broke into the Grimsby area and was crudely fouled by Luke Summerfield with referee Kevin Johnson just yards away. And Killip could not stretch far enough to his right to keep out Smith’s seventh goal of the season as his penalty hit the inside of a post on its way in.
Grimsby’s fate was only settled when Kewell decided to introduce substitute Mark Randall into his midfield after an hour’s play. Within a minute he produced the 30yard pass which freed the impressive Ahearne-Grant to run at the visitor’s defence and score his second goal in as many matches since being signed on loan from Charlton.
And seven minutes later Randall was the provider again with the through ball which set up Boldewijn to score Crawley’s third with a delicate chip over Killip.
Having been the target of a recent 300strong fans car park protest Russell Slade’s position as Grimsby manager is looking precarious. The defeat extended their run of winless league games to 12 in which they have only notched up four draws and scored four goals.
But he was accurate in his summary of the show at Broadfield Stadium, saying: “The result was not a fair reflection of the of the way we played, particularly in the first half.
“We had good momentum but then gave away a penalty and the second goal was a killer.
“Earlier in the game we got into the final third of the pitch six times to Crawley’s once but we lack the ruthless touches in both boxes and paid the penalty.”