UPDATED: Crawley Green fall to Stony Stratford Town defeat

Crawley Green went down to a 3-0 defeat at Stony Stratford Town in Molten Spartan SML Division One on Tuesday night.

Manager Mark Smith made numerous changes to his side from Saturday’s well-earned win against table-topping Sun Postals, in anticipation of Friday night’s (tonight) FA Cup tie against Dunstable Town.

Crawley started well with Richard Pringle winning the aerial battle, and Matthew Hayward in the Stoney goal was forced to save with his legs from a Pringle header on three minutes.

Glen Freeman found Jamie Warne on the left with a good through ball, but the cross was too near to Stony keeper Hayward.

Bailey Browne headed over Matthew Way’s free-kick two minutes later before Way cut in from the left wing and had a shot well saved by Dean Bull five minutes later.

Stony always looked dangerous on the counter-attack as they troubled the Crawley defence with their pace.

The hosts took the lead five minutes before the break when Bull misjudged a free-kick and Stuart Deeble headed in to an open net from the edge of the penalty area.

And on the stroke of half time Stony doubled there lead as Luke Little drove home left-footed from the edge of the area.

Crawley came out for the second half looking for a quick reply to get back in the game, but fell to another counter-attack from Stony as Little scored again six minutes in to put the game beyond Crawley.

Crawley host local rivals Dunstable Town at Sharpenhoe Road in the preliminary round of the FA Cup on Friday night.