Creepy Crawley crushed in Carabao: Brighton 4-0 Crawley photos
Sussex belonged to Brighton with our photos of the first competitive derby in 32 years between Brighton and Crawley showing an easy 4-0 win for the Albion.
The sides last met in a FA Cup third round tie back in 1992. Brighton ran out 5-0 victors at the Goldstone Ground that day, easily avoiding slipping on what was a potential banana skin.
Crawley probably fancied their chances of pulling off an upset in the Carabao Cup this time. Not only was there the local derby element, but the Albion have a long and proud tradition of being eliminated from knockout competitions by clubs from lower leagues. As anyone who was at Charlton Athletic two seasons ago can attest to.
There was to be no repeat of that shambolic December night at the Valley against League One opponents here. Crawley caused a few early problems but once Simon Adingra gave Brighton the lead on the half hour mark, there was only going to be one winner.
Jeremy Sarmiento made it 2-0 just after half time with late goals from Adam Webster and Mark O’Mahony completing the rout.
The Red Devils might have left the Amex with some praise for their football through the first 30 minutes had they not combined it with outright thuggery.
Crawley knocked the ball around well and had a game plan to try and take advantage of the high defensive line Brighton player under Fabian Hurzeler.
Nobody is talking about any of that though. Instead, the focus has ended up being on Red Devils captain Jay Williams and his flying tackle which means £25 million signing Matt O’Riley needs ankle surgery after just six minutes in a Brighton shirt.
Williams somehow escaped even a yellow card for his assault. Julio Enciso and Carlos Baleba were also on the end of rough treatment, whilst another horror foul on Yasin Ayari resulted in a straight red card for Jack Roles.
If you have any photos you would like included in our Brighton 4-0 Crawley Town gallery please e-mail them to wearebrighton@hotmail.co.uk or tweet them to us @wearebrighton
