Saturday 31 August 2002 - Twerton Park - kick off 3.00pm Dr Martens Premier Division

With Jamie Gosling, Frankie Bennett and Jason Eaton all absent due to injury the last thing City needed was losing another player in the first few minutes of the game. The first ariel challenge of the game saw Paul Milsom receive an elbow to the side of his head. Setting the tone for his whole performance the referee failed to even judge this awful challenge a foul but that made little difference to the cut Milsom sustained and he was replaced by the far from match fit Adrian Foster. Despite these setbacks, and opponent Crawley's strong reputation, City went on the control the first period. Two early Jason Drysdale corners found the head of Gary Thorne but he failed to trouble keeper Little. The visitors were struggling to cope with Andy Williams' strong runs and the pace of Dan Cleverley. Twice the latter made space for himself in the box only to fire wastefully wide. The first time City keeper Mark Bryant got a look into the action was after 18 minutes when he comfortably collected Holmes' optimistic strike. City's best chance of the half fell to Foster on 23 minutes. A long ball foward sent him clear of Town's slow rearguard. Despite having the time and space to carry the ball forward he elected to shoot first time and screwed his effort well wide. Seven minutes later Little was forced to save at the feet of Foster and then he denied Drysdale, getting down quickly to block his free-kick. For the second match already this season the referee appeared to have forgetten his cards which gave the visitors licence to stop City any way they could, but the half ended with further chances for Foster and Williams that went begging.

All this dominance was made to count for nothing after just 40 seconds of the restart. A hopeful cross by Powell was headed back across goal by McDonnell and Stevens made no mistake from eight yards out. As if City couldn't believe how they were trailing to such poor opposition four minutes later they almost found themselves further behind - Bryant saving well from McDonnell. Suddenly City's neat approach play seemed to desert them. With Foster and Cleverley understandably tiring their attacks were being dealt with more comfortably by the Sussex side. For all Iain Harvey's hard work in the middle of the park and Williams' continual probing the Romans too often resulted to long hopeful punts forward that never really threatened an equaliser. However, through a combination of persistance and comical goalkeeping they still had the chances to grab an unlikely goal. Twice Little spilled balls he should have collected but Williams and Cleverley couldn't quite take advantage. Trought also saw a header fly over and Cleverley shot straight at the shakey keeper. In the final ten minutes City finally ran out of steam and Crawley could - probably should - have extended their lead. Bagnall's point-blank shot was blocked by Bryant and McDonnell copied Foster's composure when clean through on goal. Another goal would have been even harsher on City but at the final whistle it was the Crawley fans who finally made a bit of noise to celebrate a fortunate victory.