'˜Mistaken identity' costs Chichester dear at Crawley Down

Chichester City will feel hard done by after their second 2-2 draw with Crawley Down Gatwick this season in the league left them with just one SCFL premier division point to add to their tally.
Action from Chichester's visit to Crawley Down Gatwick / Picture by Samrat GolharAction from Chichester's visit to Crawley Down Gatwick / Picture by Samrat Golhar
Action from Chichester's visit to Crawley Down Gatwick / Picture by Samrat Golhar

City were missing Jamie Horncastle, Perry Northeast , Max Thoms and Jack Lee but were the better team in the first half.

They created many first-half chances with the impressive Kieran Hartley at the heart of every attack, though they failed to capitalise on their attacking flair in the first half and only just managed to go 1-0 up through Scott Jones late in the second half after a penalty-box scramble ended with Jones smashing home another goal for the team in his remarkable first season with Chichester.

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The interval gave CDG the chance to re-group and work out a way to stop Chichester.

CDG were the better team in the second half and made Chichester work hard.

CDG equalised through Daniel Sullivan on 64 minutes through a mistake by Chichester keeper Ant Ender, who came to the edge of the box for a cross, timed it wrong and allowed Sullivan to head into an empty net.

Chichester responded well and started to create more opportunities as they did in the first half.

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Josh Clack and Hartley created the best chances for Chichester before Jones was taken down in the penalty box allowing captain Ellis Martin to score from the spot, putting Chichester 2-1 up.

Chris Hooker picked up his second yellow card of the game in what City officials said was a refereeing mistake.

The referee missed a foul on Hooker and gave a free-kick the wrong way while also issuing a second yellow to Hooker for something which no player on either side saw.

Both teams questioned this decision but it ended up playing into the hands of CDG, who camped in the Chichester half for the closing 20 minutes, getting a penalty in the final minute and scoring to equalise.

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Chichester City coach Danny Potter said: “We’re disappointed with the result – we did more than enough in the first half to be out of sight and this really is a wake-up call for us.

“Kieran Hartley was exceptional first half and we will take the positives from the way he and our other attacking players created so many chances, though we must also look at the negatives too and learn from us dropping two points so late on in the game, not for the first time this season.”

Chichester host Worthing United this Saturday.

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