A top of the table clash on Saturday .
With this being Crawleys last league fixture a win for Cranleigh would put us back on top with 3 remaining games. After 2 minutes a cross field pass by Charlie Gibson from the left to Sullivan Howick on the right put Sully on goal with a 1 v 1. Unfortunately Sully seemed to have the same shooting boots from last week as he hit his shot wide. The game was very edgy and hotly disputed in the middle with neither side creating many chances.
A few Crawley through balls were met by our keeper Isaac Denton – Miller who came out of his area to clear. After 15 minutes Charlie Gibson cut inside and beat 3 defenders before curling a shot inside the far post to put Cranleigh 1-0 up . Crawley did seem to be finding space on our right hand side but a couple of player changes soon shut this down.
With both teams cancelling each other out the first half finished with Cranleigh 1-0 up. Just after the second half started Deon Mubaiwa was unlucky to see his shot come off the post. Fletcher Russell narrowly missed with a free kick from just outside the area. It did seem as if we couldn’t get the second much needed goal to put Crawley away and there was always a worry they could score. This was almost proved right as midway through the second half Crawley hit the bar with our keeper beaten .
With our keeper on the ground the ball rebounded straight to the Crawley striker 4 yards out with an open goal. Just as he was going to shoot into an open goal Ethan Payne flew in with an amazing man and ball tackle which left him with the ball which he duly cleared and the Crawley striker inprinted in the mud.
After that warning we stepped it up and indeed I think Ethans great tackle lifted the team as Deon Mubaiwa broke clear a minute later with just the keeper to beat. Deon has had plenty of 1v1 with opposing keepers and somehow more often than not manages to almost knock the keeper out by smashing his effort straight at them . This time he kept his cool and composure to score our second. We now need to work on his offside running !!! A disconsolate Crawley kicked off and straight away gave the ball away to Charlie Gibson who crossed for Sullivan to head in at the back post scoring for his 4 th game in a row.
With 2 goals in 2 minutes and Cranleigh now 3-0 up the game was all but won. There was just time for a great Charlie Gibson shot to be cleared off the line . With the defence marshalled by Fletcher Russell and Charlie Obrien winning every tackle he made and distributing the ball well a clean sheet was well deserved.
So 3-0 to Cranleigh and back to the top of the table. A great team display again with some players playing out of position for the team and not one moan .
Man of the Match – Charlie Obrien
After his worst game last week he showed amazing character and maturity to come back and play his best game this season.
Scorers
Charlie Gibson
Deon Mubaiwa
Sullivan Howick
