Bees fifth after dramatic win at Crawley

Crawley Town 1 Brentford 2

Sam Saunders and Clayton Donaldson fired Brentford back into the play-off places amid high drama at the Broadfield Stadium.

An explosive start saw one of the quickest red cards of the season and Donaldson miss the resulting penalty – all within the first 50 seconds.

Saunders and Donaldson both struck in the first half-an-hour to seemingly put the Bees in command.

But the controversial sending off of Adam Forshaw – a second yellow card following an alleged dive – restored parity on the field and Nicky Adams’ stunning shot reduced Brentford’s lead.

Crawley pressed hard during seven minutes of added time but the visitors held on to move up to fifth in the table .

Supporters who arrived late missed an incredible first minute.

A neat dummy from Bradley Wright-Phillips released Donaldson and he was clipped by Mark Connolly as he bore down on goal.

Referee Lee Collins produced the inevitable red card but Donaldson squandered the opportunity by rolling his penalty wide of the left-hand post.

But the Bees took just 15 minutes to make Town’s staff shortage tell.

Wright-Phillips’ dynamic run from deep caught the Crawley defence napping, he found Donaldson on the corner of the box and the striker selflessly laid it off to the marauding Saunders, who thumped the ball home.

Crawley then imploded at the back to gift Brentford a second goal on the half-hour mark.

Lee Hodson’s direct pass bounced between centre-back Connor Essam and keeper Jones on the edge of the box and they left it for each other, allowing Donaldson to nip in and tuck the ball away – his 20th goal of the season.

Donaldson lifted his shirt to reveal a T-shirt emblazoned with the message ‘For you, Mum’ – and was promptly booked.

The drama continued in the second half, which began with Crawley in the ascendancy.

Within 12 minutes of the restart, Uwe Rosler’s side were also reduced to 10 in highly debatable circumstances.

Forshaw, on a yellow card, went to ground inside the box but with Bees fans behind the goal expecting another penalty, Collins instead ruled that the winger had dived and sent him packing for a second booking.

Shortly after Donaldson had put a shot wide, former Brentford winger Adams cut the deficit with an unstoppable curling effort from 25 yards.

Substitute Scott Barron could have put the game beyond doubt but saw his stinging drive blocked by the legs of Jones.

And Rosler’s men had to survive a Crawley onslaught in injury time to seal the points.

Brentford (4-4-2): S Moore; Hodson, Dean, L Moore, Craig; Forshaw, Adeyemi (Logan 87), Douglas, Saunders (Barron 66); Donaldson, Wright-Phillips (Diagouraga 74).
Subs not used: Dallas, Hayes, Trotta, Lee.

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