Stevenage stranded by eight points at bottom of League Two after Crawley defeat

Posted Sunday, February 23, 2020 by PA

Stevenage suffered a sorry 2-0 Sky Bet League Two defeat at Crawley as their relegation battle became increasingly desperate following a seventh-successive league defeat.

Goals in either half from Bez Lubala and Ashley Nadesan stretched the Reds’ unbeaten home league run to eight games in new Boro manager Alex Revell’s first match in charge.

Crawley, unbeaten at home in the league since November 23, had the ball in the net early on but Nadesan’s effort was ruled off-side.

Nadesan later forced goalkeeper Paul Farman to save low down before firing across the face of the goal from a pass by Lubala.

Former Birmingham forward Lubala gave the Reds the lead midway through the first half with a 25-yard shot which flew in off the post.

Mason Bloomfield was denied by Farman moments later and Crawley goalkeeper Glenn Morris kept his side ahead by pushing a goal-bound shot from Charlie Carter around the post.

Carter blazed a good chance over for Stevenage just after the break and Boro then had a let off when a shot from Ricardo German came back off the post and into the hands of Farman.

German put another shot against the post before Nadesan sealed Crawley’s victory in the third minute of stoppage time from an unselfish pass by Lubala to leave Stevenage stranded by eight points at the bottom of the table.