Eastbourne Town 2 Crawley Down Gatwick 1
By Mike May
Crawley Down suffered their seventh defeat in ten matches with this latest debacle at Eastbourne Town.
Youth team player Jamie Hills was handed a start in place of the unavailable Miles Mitchell and full-back Matt Geard played in the unfamiliar role of striker in place of the injured Jamie Cade.
Anvils had the first chance when a Fraser Logan corner was headed wide by Craig Richards, then Luke Blewden shot into the side-netting,
Eastbourne took the lead on 17 minutes when right midfielder Richard Greenfield cut in to fire past Tony Di Bernardo
On the half hour a Logan corner was hacked off the goalline inspite of Anvils’ protests that it had crossed the line, But all this was forgotten when Byron Napper then let fly from 25 yards to equalise.
For the second period Geard found space to test home keeper Josh Pelling, but on 57 minutes they allowed Danny Curd to waltzugh their defence to score Town’s second.
Tom Frankland and the veteran Ian Payne replaced Charlie Slocombe and Luke Blewden with 30 minutes to go.
But Eastbourne defended well to see out the rest of the game.
Down: Di Bernardo, Slocombe (Tom Frankland), Hills, Richards, Page, Sargent, Napper, Odunaike, Geard, Blewden (Payne).
Attendance: 212
Man of the Match: Fraser Logan