Tranmere 1, Crawley Town 3: Victory at Rovers fires Reds into play-off places

Danilo Orsi scored his 18th goal of the season to give Crawley a 3-1 win at the Rovers.

There was a tough period for Crawley where they were on the back foot against a motivated Tranmere side.

After holding on for a large spell of the game, the Reds managed to eventually control the game and slow it down, which allowed Orsi to grab the third and put the game to bed.

Williams returned early from international duty to captain an unchanged Crawley Town team from the 1-1 draw with Stockport County.

Kelly opened the scoring inside two minutes with a good strike from outside the box into the far left bottom corner.

Will Wright found Kelly waiting on the edge of the box after a one-two which involved Ronan Darcy.

Kelly was left in a huge amount of space which allowed the midfielder to line up his shot and get his first goal for Reds.

Williams then got his first goal for the club with a tap in at the back post from a corner. The corner from Wright was flicked on by Orsi at the near post to reach Williams, who had a clear sight of goal and was able to tap it in comfortably.

Orsi had the ball in the back of the net again for the Reds inside 15 minutes but, luckily for Tranmere, it was chalked off for a foul in the build up to give the home side a lifeline.

Tranmere almost managed to get one goal back Joy Mukena slipped and lost out to Connor Jennings. He played in Luke Norris but the forward’s effort was comfortably saved by Corey Addai.

Crawley’s electric start came to a pause in the 21st minute when Norris got one goal back with a smart acrobatic finish from close range.

With wins over Wrexham and Mansfield Town in their previous two games, Tranmere’s attacking threat now proved dangerous, with Crawley forced to defend and prevent an equaliser.

Tranmere managed to charge forward with five attacking players, which caught Crawley off guard as they only had two players back to defend this potential problem. After holding onto the ball for too long, Darcy managed to intercept and help Reds out of trouble.

Having gone through a difficult period, Crawley managed to play out the first half well as they slowed the game down and stopped the Rovers from causing more damage.

Tranmere gave Crawley a taste of their own medicine and started the second half quickly. After some nice link up play on the left hand side, the ball was then crossed into the far post for Jennings who hit the side netting.

Rob Apter managed to dribble his way through a wall of red but could not end his brilliant run with a goal as he shot wide of the post.

The home side then felt they should have had a penalty after Mukena blocked a shot from Norris, but the referee dismissed these shouts as he felt the arm was in a natural position. All of this inside the first six minutes of the half proved that Tranmere were not going out without a fight.

With the game significantly slowed down, Addai maintained his focus and managed to deny Jennings from point-blank range which kept Crawley ahead with 30 minutes to play.

But Orsi grabbed his 18th goal of the season as he calmly slotted the ball into the back of the net from close range.

Ade Adeyemo’s wonderful dribbling ability once again proved useful as he slipped through two Tranmere defenders before finding Orsi in space to get his goal and put the game to bed.