Six of the best for new Crawley owners

6:36pm Saturday 5th April 2008

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Crawley manager Steve Evans saw his side start life under new ownership in the best possible way and said: "I knew this would happen."

Reds hammered York City at Broadfield Stadium thanks to a goal-blitz from Jon-Paul Pittman (two), Pierre Joseph-Dubois (two), Ryan Hall and Jamie Cook.

It was the first game since a consortium under the name of Property Estates Holdings Limited and former owner John Duly bought the club this week.

Evans said "I knew this was coming. We've been playing well over the past few games but have not got the results and had a feeling we would give someone a hiding.

"It was great to give the new owners such a good performance and result as well as the fans."

New director Phil Jarman had called for the fans to come out and get behind the team for the first game under the new reign.

But there was no notable increase in the number of fans on the terraces as the game kicked off.

There was plenty for those who did turn up to get excited about in the first half, though, as Reds stormed into a 3-1 lead.

Pittman put them ahead on 18 minutes with a close-range header after York had failed to clear their lines properly following a corner.

The visitors equalised nine minutes later after a mistake by Reds keeper Ashley Bayes.

He missed the ball completely after charging from his goal to try and clear and striker Martyn Woolford slotted into the empty net from an angle.

The parity only lasted two minutes as Hall restored the lead for the hosts with his first goal since joining on loan from Crystal Palace.

He rifled a free kick from the edge of the area under the wall and into the bottom corner.

The third goal came just 60 seconds later with Crawley's next attack following the restart.

Joseph-Dubois raced onto a long ball over the top, brushed a challenge from defender Daniel Parslow aside and beat keeper Josh Mimms with a low drive from 12 yards.

The impressive Hall almost added his second just before the interval with a dipping volley from 20 yards which bounced off the top of the crossbar.

Pittman then went close again soon after with a low effort which Mimms did well to stop.

Bayes made amends for his earlier error early in the second half by saving superbly to stop York getting back in the game.

Substitutes Onome Siodje beat the offside trap to go through on goal and was denied by a point-blank block from the Reds stopper.

Crawley were soon back in control and Joseph-Dubois forced Mimms into another diving save with a turn and shot from just inside the area.

Pittman added the fourth with ten minutes remaining when he outpaced defender Ben Purkiss and slotted coolly under Mimms.

Joseph-Dubois scored his second in the 86th minute when he followed up a shot from Hall which came back off a post.

Substitute Cook rounded off the comfortable win with a header from a corner just moments after coming on.

Crawley Town: Bayes, Thomas, Thompson, Blackburn, Hall, Bulman, Pittman, Pinault, Murphy, Joseph-Dubois, Krause. Subs: Stevens, Cook, Carter, Carayol, Raynor.

York: Mimms, Craddock, Elliott, McGurk, Parslow, Rusk, Lloyd, Woolford, Wroe, Purkiss, Brodie. Subs: Evans, Robinson, Sodje, Fortune-West