Early on Crawley were not closing down and Altrincham looked very comfortable and in control. Joe O'Neill was holding the ball up well and turning defenders and Warren Peyton was getting past people and getting his passes away. There was lots of tugging and pushing in the Crawley area at set pieces and on two seperate occasions players were spoken to. Clearly the referee had said if it happens again someone's going in the book. So when it happened again O'Neill and Thomas got booked. Colin Little got involved in some arguing with the ref, so when he put in a heavy challenge a minute later he was pretty much asking to get booked.
Second half the wind had picked up and the game got scrappy. Acton failed to get a hand to a fairly soft daisy-cutter and after that Altrincham were struggling. A succession of Ryan Shotton long throws caused Crawley no trouble at all. Colin Little scored after the Crawley keeper ran to the touchline to clear the ball and missed it. All Little had to do was roll the ball to the goal area and tap it in. That made it 1-2. Shortly after Crawley got another. Then I went home. By the time I'd walked up the road it was 2-3. Blame the ref, blame the linesman, blame the wind if you want to, but that game was there for the winning and Altrincham, like the wind, blew it.