Preview: Crawley Town vs Exeter City

City successfully negotiated their passage into the second round of the FA Cup on Tuesday night albeit with another rather tepid display. Matt Taylor’s selection worries eased somewhat with Nicky Law returning to the starting line-up and Tom Parkes back on the bench, and on Saturday thanks to the replay he will have Jake Taylor back from suspension earlier than expected when he picked up his three match ban at Bradford. The skipper is likely to go straight back into the side, which may mean the benching of Matt Jay, while Alex Fisher could continue up front at the expense of Ryan Bowman.

With limited resources, the fact Crawley comfortably avoided relegation last season was somewhat unexpected, and Gabriele Cioffi’s side are in mid-table currently albeit with just one victory in the league since mid-September. One thing to point out, however, is that the Red Devils have tended to do quite well against the supposedly stronger sides in the division – their last wins in the league against Colchester and Mansfield – something that also showed in their run to the EFL Cup 4th round where they beat Walsall, Norwich and Stoke (on penalties). Ollie Palmer seems to have been usurped as the main goal threat by Beryly Lubula, who has nine goals in all competitions including the penalty in their 1-1 draw with Morecambe last Saturday. Reece Grego-Cox is another name to watch.

For the second successive season Crawley took four points from this fixture last time. The corresponding fixture finished 1-1 – Morais giving Crawley the lead, Lee Holmes equalising. The return fixture saw City turn in a dire display in going down 1-3 to an out of form Crawley side, Morais and a Grego-Cox double for the visitors, Bowman scoring to make it 1-2. City still enjoy a healthy league head to head lead with eight wins to Crawley’s three, five matches finishing level. At the matches between the sides can be found at https://www.grecians.co.uk/wordpress/?p=9487

The match officials for this game are:-

Referee: Trevor Kettle
Assistant Referees: Bhupinder Gill and Samuel Ogles
Fourth Official : Gregory Read

Trevor Kettle has refereed 11 Exeter matches, details at https://www.grecians.co.uk/wordpress/?s=kettle