Crawley’s second pre-season match saw them narrowly lose 2-1 to Championship side Ipswich Town in an entertaining first friendly at the Broadfield.
Played in front of 1,029 fans, goals from Daryl Murphy and David McGouldrick from the penalty spot in the second half gave Ipswich a two-goal lead and Nicky Adams pulled one back for the hosts with a fine strike from distance.
Both sides named strong starting XIs, triallist James Stinson the only non first team Crawley player with new right back James Hurst out with a niggle, along with Josh Simpson and Andy Drury, missing out against his old club.
Crawley had the game’s first chance when Billy Clarke curled a free kick wide inside two minutes.
The Championship side went ahead after nine minutes. Paul Anderson was allowed to juggle his way in from the left and the ball sat up for Daryl Murphy to lash in on the half volley.
Reds striker Jamie Proctor stung the hands of triallist Tractor Boys stopper Dean Gerken a minute later and Joe Walsh glanced just wide of the far post from Nicky Adams’ free kick.
The visitors just offered more of a cutting edge upfront and on the half hour only a stunning sliding challenge from defender Mark Connolly denied Murphy a certain second.
The hosts’ best chance of the first 45 minutes arrived when the lively Nicky Adams skipped past Tyrone Mings in the box and found Clarke at the back post with a lovely chip, only for the forward to nod straight at Gerken.
An entertaining half ended with Jones diving to save a Chopra free kick from 20 yards as Ipswich went in with their noses just in front.
Ipswich brought on a completely new side for the start of the second half apart from goalkeeper Gerken while Reds stayed the same.
Torres skied a good chance over straight from the restart but straight up the other end McGoldrick played the ball across to Jay Tabb, and with only Paul Jones to beat the Reds stopped saved with his foot.
Town did though double their lead on 53 minutes via the penalty spot when McGoldrick took a tumble under the slightest of challenges from Paul Jones, and the striker picked himself up to send the keeper the wrong way.
Clarke livened up the home crowd with an acrobatic overhead attempt from Adams’s cross and Reds boss Richie Barker made his first chances on the hour, bringing on four fresh players.
Having been on the back foot since the resumption, Reds got back into the game when Adams unleashed an unstoppable shot from 25 yards which flew into the net.
At the other end Frank Nouble curled wide, before Adams nearly drew Crawley level only to be denied by Gerken, Mike Jones’s shot on the rebound blocked.
Tabb thought he had scored Ipswich’s third but his close-range goal was ruled offside by the linesman’s flag.
One big plus for Crawley was the performance of substitute Jordan Adekunle, the 18 year old full of pace and running and he nearly scored with a deflected cross which struck the far post towards the end.
Crawley Town: Paul Jones (Jonathan Maddison 68), Joe Walsh (Mat Sadler 60) , Mark Connolly (Kyle McFadzean 60), Connor Essam (Alex Malins 68), James Stinson, Dannie Bulman (Elliott Levy 68), Sergio Torres (Jordan Adekunle 68), Mike Jones (Malachi Robinson 68), Nicky Adams, Billy Clarke (Jonte Smith 60), Jamie Proctor (Gary Alexander 60).
Ipswich Town 1st half: Dean Gerken, Kyle Hammond, Bongani Khumalo, Tommy Smith, Tyrone Mings, Paul Anderson, Luke Hyam, Cole Skuse, Josh Carson, Daryl Murphy, Michael Chopra.
Ipswich 2nd half: Dean Gerken, Scott Loach, Elliott Hewitt, Luke Chambers, Dan Seabourne, Aaron Creswell David October 24), Byron Lawrence, Amir Berkane, Anthony Wordsworth, Jay Tabb, Frank Nouble, David McGoldrick.