Southend United 0, Crawley Town 0: Reds draw at Shrimpers but winless run extends to seven

Crawley Town's winless run in League Two extended to seven games following their goalless draw at struggling Southend United this (Saturday) afternoon.
Ashley Nadesan had a glorious chance to open the scoring for Crawley Town at Southend United on the stroke of half-time. Picture by Steve RobardsAshley Nadesan had a glorious chance to open the scoring for Crawley Town at Southend United on the stroke of half-time. Picture by Steve Robards
Ashley Nadesan had a glorious chance to open the scoring for Crawley Town at Southend United on the stroke of half-time. Picture by Steve Robards

The result sees the Reds drop to 15th in the table with 53 points from 40 games.

Head coach John Yems made four changes from Crawley's humbling 4-1 home defeat against Oldham Athletic on Easter Monday.

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Archie Davies, Jordan Maguire-Drew, James Tilley and Ashley Nadesan replaced Tony Craig, George Francomb, Jack Powell and Sam Matthews respectively.

Both sides traded early blows in the first half. Nadesan curled an effort just wide before Glenn Morris denied Southend's Greg Halford after a lax back-pass from Joe McNerney.

Tilley then forged a couple of chances of his own as the visitors stepped up the pressure.

The winger had a fizzing shot headed off the line before he drifted past ex-Red Nathan Ferguson and fired narrowly wide of the far post.

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The Reds had a glorious opportunity to take the lead on the stroke of half-time.

Good work from Tom Nichols saw the forward square the ball to Nadesan in the box.

Crawley's number ten had just Shrimpers keeper Mark Oxley to beat but Nadesan contrived to chip his shot wide and away from the goal.

The second half began with a scare for the Reds as Ferguson rattled the post with a powerful effort.

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Matthews and Powell were thrown on in place of Maguire-Drew and Jake Hessenthaler as Crawley looked to reassert their first half dominance.

Reds keeper Morris was called upon to make a cracking point-blank stop to deny Reeco Hackett-Fairchild from two-yards out.

A superb reaction save from Oxley then kept out a venomous drive from Nadesan.

Crawley created two further half-chances in the final 15 minutes through Davies and Jordan Tunnicliffe.

But the visitors couldn't break the deadlock and the points were shared.

The Reds travel to 11th-placed Bradford City on Tuesday evening (7pm kick-off).

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