Notts come from behind to crush Crawley

Well, what a relief. When Notts fell behind at home to Crawley Town, it looked like it was going to be a long evening. Instead, it turned out to be a very pleasant one, as the Magpies came from behind to rattle four goals past the visitors and clinch an emphatic, if not completely straightforward, 4-1 win at Meadow Lane.

Mark Yates’s side weathered the early storm and countered through Lewis Young, who was left with just Gill Swerts and Roy Carroll en route to goal, but the Belgian did enough to dispossess him.

Luke Rooney then picked up the ball outside the area and drifted into dangerous territory, but his near-post strike was brilliantly saved by the Northern Irish stopper.

Crawley kept on coming and eventually took the lead through Rhys Murphy, who seized on a miscued clearance which cannoned off Bobson Bawling and into the debutant’s path, before slotting the ball into the empty net.

Just after the half-hour mark Ricardo Moniz’s charges were level when a long throw ghosted through the Red Devils defence and into the path of Mike Edwards, who glanced a header into the far corner.

And just moments after the restart, Liam Noble latched on to Adam Campbell’s pass and curled a rocket into the top corner to put the hosts in the lead, much to the relief of the home faithful.

It would get even better just after the restart when Izale McLeod was fouled in the Crawley box, prompting the referee to award the Magpies a penalty, which Noble duly rifled past goalkeeper Freddie Woodman for a third home goal.

Notts were dominant by this stage and piled on the pressure time and time again, getting their just reward late on through Steady Eddie, who raced to the near post to thump in a header from Noble's corner.

Crawley were down and out at this stage, and despite a few audacious forays into Notts’s final third, they were unable to get any more goals as the final whistle blew on an emphatic Notts victory.