Crawley captain Gary Alexander scored twice for the the Reds as they strolled to victory against a Scunthorpe team who were clearly feeling the effects of their 5-5 thriller in the Capital One Cup mid-week game against Derby County.The game got off to a lively start with chances at both ends of the pitch. Alexander has the first chance as he saw his header saved by Scunthorpe keeper Sam Slocombe. Mike Grella was put through on goal against Paul Jones; he looked destined to score only to see his shot comfortably saved by keeper Jones.The Reds continued to press for an opening goal and it finally came on 33 minutes when Nicky Adams’ free kick floated in towards the box and Akpan’s header beat Slocombe for Gary Alexander to tap into the empty net. The Reds had the lead in their first ever game in League One and were on their way to making history.The final chances of the half fell to Scunthorpe; a blinding run from Jimmy Ryan was prevented when Adam Sadler cleared the ball off the line when Grella looked as if he would tap into the open goal. While Iron skipper David Mirfin shot wide from a corner when he really should have hit the target.It was half time and both teams took a well deserved rest in the 30 degrees heat. When the second half started it was clear the teams were feeling the effects of the scorching heat as neither team were able to find their rhythm but the game sprung into life when Alexander was brought down in the box by Tom Newey. A soft penalty to give away. Gary Alexander doubled up to score his second of the game. It appeared to have killed off Scunthorpe whose second half display was lackluster, they were tiring in the heat.A second wind then kicked into The Iron players and chances started to appear for them but unfortunately their finishing wasn’t clinical enough and their chances were wasted. The final blow to the game came 15 minutes before the end when new loan signing Jonathan Forte headed past onrushing goalkeeper Slocombe to make it 3-0.The away side’s day got worse when Mark Duffy was dismissed for a second bookable offence on 86 minutes and Crawley were able to see the game out without any major problems.Overall, Scunthorpe had their chances and the score-line probably did not justify these but they were not good enough on the day. While for Crawley it was the perfect way for Richie Barker to start his reign as manager and to cap our debut in the third tier of English football. Bring on Swindon!
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