Proctor brace earns Crawley win at Bury (From The Argus)

Proctor brace earns Crawley win at Bury

4:49pm Saturday 2nd March 2013 in Sport By Steve Hollis

Jamie Proctor scored twice as Crawley won 2-0 at struggling Bury to keep their faint play-off hopes alive.

Proctor opened his account in his fifth appearance for Reds when he fired a low shot home from the edge of the area in the 17th minute.

The former Swansea striker doubled the advantage two minutes after half-time with an emphatic header from a Mike Jones cross.

Defeat kept Bury entrenched in the bottom four of League One but lifted Crawley to 12th, 11 points outside the play-offs with three games in hand.

Jake Taylor was brought straight into the starting line-up after signing on loan from Reading on Thursday in place of the injured Billy Clarke and almost made a dream start when his shot was well saved by Trevor Carson in the fifth minute.

Crawley – operating in a 4-1-2-3 formation – were troubling the home side every time they went forward and Proctor curled a speculative effort over the bar from the edge of the area in the 11th minute.

The former Swansea striker did give Reds the lead six minutes later with a superb individual goal. Proctor brought down a bouncing ball 30 yards out, ran at the defence before firing a low shot in off a post from the edge of the box.

Crawley could have doubled their advantage soon after when Taylor mishit a shot straight at Carson after good work from Mustapha Dumbuya.

Reds thought they had a penalty in the 33rd minute when Taylor was toppled in the area. Referee Richard Clark pointed to the spot before spotting the linesman’s flag was up for offside.

Bury offered little as an attacking threat in the first half with their only efforts being a shot from Nicky Ajose well over the bar and a volley from Zac Thompson which was comfortably saved by Paul Jones.

The Shakers were booed off at half-time and the mood of the home fans got worse two minutes after the restart as Reds went 2-0 up.

Mike Jones whipped over a cross after a short corner and Proctor rose above his marker to thump home a header at the far post.

Bury finally began to put Reds under pressure as they attempted to get back in the game and substitute Craig Jones was inches away from getting a decisive touch to a cross from Joe Skarz at the far post.

The home side forced a series of corners but the Crawley defence held firm with the closest Bury came to scoring being a shot on the turn from Craig Fagan which went well over.

Substitute Andy Bishop also headed over but Crawley were well worth their win against a poor Bury side.