Harrogate Town 1 Crawley Town 3: Sloppy Sulphurites punished by Red Devils

There was little to choose between the sides for the duration of the contest, but the Red Devils managed to avoid the moments of sloppiness which their hosts were guilty of on too many occasions and ultimately cost them a share of the spoils.

Crawley enjoyed the better of the opening 10 minutes as the hosts struggled to string two passes together, though it was Harrogate who created the evening’s first decent chance after finally enjoying a spell of possession.

George Thomson picked out Luke Armstrong with a low cross from the right, however the unmarked striker couldn’t direct his finish inside the far post.

With 16 minutes on the clock, Town looked to be finding their rhythm, only for the Sussex outfit to launch a swift counter-attack which ended with Mark Oxley making a flying save to tip Will Ferry’s curling effort over the top.

Moments later, the visitors went closer still, Jordan Tunnicliffe directing a powerful header from Jack Powell’s right-wing corner against the cross-bar.

At the other end, Jack Diamond delivered an inviting cross from the left that Brahima Diarra somehow failed to connect with at the back post, then Armstrong saw a strike unconvincingly saved by Crawley keeper Glenn Morris.

Another searching Thomson delivery into the box then picked out Diamond at the far post, though the on-loan Sunderland winger couldn’t find a finishing touch from just a couple of yards out.

The end-to-end nature of the contest continued as Ferry tricked his way past Lewis Page and Warren Burrell before hitting the deck in search of a penalty decision that referee Andy Haines opted against giving.

Tom Nichols then showed tidy footwork to open up a sight of goal in an almost identical position inside the home box, only to be denied the opening goal by Page’s timely intervention.

A thoroughly absorbing first period would end goalless, though the second half was just three minutes old when Harrogate gifted John Yems’ team the lead in ridiculous fashion.

Jack Muldoon led a counter-attack down the centre of the pitch, but instead of going for the jugular, the Sulphurites slowed things down and Josh Falkingham was caught in possession by Aramide Oteh.

The visiting striker then proceeded to run from inside his own half, past Leon Legge and beat Oxley one-on-one.

Conceding such a bad goal could easily have left Town reeling, however they rolled their sleeves up and got themselves back on terms just after the hour-mark.

Having turned over possession, Diamond drove forwards before releasing Diarra, who cut in off the right and inside Nick Tsaroulla before slotting home his first strike for the club.

A period of relative inactivity followed until the 79th minute when Crawley grabbed a second goal out of nothing.

Nichols somehow managed to get the better of Burrell and emerge with the ball close to the right-hand byline, from where he had plenty of time to slide a pass across the six-yard box for the unmarked Tsaroulla to smash home.

Then with Harrogate attempting to build up the head of steam required to get themselves back into the game for a second time, Nichols wrapped things up for the Red Devils with a cultured curling strike from outside the box which kissed the inside of the upright on its way into the net.

Diarra did see a late looping header cleared off the goal-line with Morris nowhere to be seen and another strike deflected wide, but there was to be no late fightback from the home team.