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| Brown's Flicked-Header Was Decisive |
On the day, the 93 places that separate the two Red Devils was not definitely apparent, and full credit needs to be given for the brave effort put forth by the Blue Square Premier League side.
With everything considered, Sir Alex Ferguson went with a predictable line-up with only John O'Shea and Anderson keeping their place from the deserved win over Manchester City.
In defense, Sir Alex went Anders Linegaard, who handed his second consecutive start in the FA Cup, in net, and partnered O'Shea and Wes Brown in central defense with the Da Silva twins, Rafael and Fabio, at their respective first-choice full-back positions.
The United midfield bolstered just as much as experience with Michael Carrick, Darron Gibson and Anderson all chose to operate in the center of the park.
The Gaffer went for pace up front with Javier Hernandez, Gabriel Obertan and Bébé, who got the nod following the new injury problem to Michael Owen.
Recap
The second of the two set pieces was worked very well between Anderson and Obertan, but no one, Wes Brown in particular, made an effort to get on the winger's cross that skidded across the face of the Crawley goal.
To no real surprise, United bossed the possession in the early going, but they were playing long balls over the top to try to exploit the visitors with the speed of Chicharito and Obertan instead the normal short precise passing game.
United was almost caught out with a long-range effort from Ben Smith, but, to the relief of Lindegaard who was well off his line, the ball bent the wrong side of the far post.
The ball started to get bogged down in the middle of the field, but there were a couple of chances for Bébé or Obertan to create something, but they either lacked the imagination or the desire to make either the proper contribution.
Instead of United creating chance after chance, in the 24th minute, Crawley had a decent chance, but Craig McAllister's header from 12 yards out required Lindegaard to be alert.
With Crawley pressing forward, Obertan was gifted the chance to use his pace, which he outraced his marker, but his poor left-footed cross did not make it passed the first trailing defender.
A wonderful weighted, curling pass by Gibson picked out Hernandez, but instead of striking it with his left foot, the young striker tried cutting inside and the chance was blocked out for a corner.
From the ensuing corner, United put themselves into the lead, and it was the out-of-favor captain for the day!
A short corner made its way to Gibson, who played in another well-placed cross into the Crawley box, which Brown did well to react quickest to flick into the far corner of the net, for his first goal in the FA Cup.
The goal should have inspired United to go and get more, but some awful decision making and wayward crossing from Obertan and Bébé killed the chances off.
Gibson should have registered another assist, but his pinpoint pass, which sprung Fabio behind the Crawley defense, was poked wide by the young Brazilian full-back.
To redeem himself, Fabio did well to win back a misplaced pass from Obertan, but his cross was put wide by Chicharito - but, wrongfully, the referee awarded a corner kick.
Some great passing combination with Anderson and Carrick saw the latter play a ball outwide to Obertan, and the winger was given the chance to beat his defender, but his near post blast was parried well by Michel Kuipers.
Another great one-two between the center midfielders saw Anderson spring Gibson with some room to shoot, but his bending effort lacked the accuracy and went straight into the arms of the Crawley Town goalkeeper's waiting arms.
United started to get forward, but Obertan was muscled out when he should have turned home another wonderfully placed cross from Gibson.
It was Crawley's turn to attack, and their left-back, Dean Howell, completely outpaced Bébé down the wing, but fortunately for United, his tasty cross was too far forward for any of his trailing teammates.
However, the away team's confidence and pressure did not end there, and it required three very timely interceptions from Wes Brown to deny Crawley a good goal scoring chance.
Lee Pobert's halftime whistle came, which would have done two things: encourage Crawley that they were only a goal down to the Barclays Premier League leaders; but also light a fire under some of the lethargic passers of the ball for United.
Taking no chances, Sir Alex brought on Wayne Rooney for Anderson to give United two center forwards in the Crawley box to potentially contest the crosses that were being pumped in during the first half.
However, it was Crawley, through Howell down the left flank, that saw United being put on the back foot during the opening minutes of the half.
United hit Crawley with a quick counterattack when Rooney played a perfectly weighted pass to Obertan, but, with Hernandez lurking, the winger's dangerous cross was cut out well.
Crawley were not looking out of place at all, and were asking all the questions with a very tight, concise passing movement, which had the United defenders scrambling to get the ball clear on a couple of occasions.
Sergio Torres, who was being touted as the player to watch ahead of the game for Crawley, got his first real action the match as he picked up the first yellow card from the referee after a reckless challenge on Rafael.
The stoppage in play allowed Sir Alex to make his second change with Chris Smalling coming on for Rafael, who looked to have picked up some sort of injury prior to the challenge from Torres.
The big center half was called directly in to action when a long ball to Tubbs saw him almost get behind the United defense, but Smalling was more than up to the task.
United continued to be stuck in cruise control as Bébé and Chicharito both wasted a couple of very good chances to test the back-four of Crawley.
Just after the hour mark, United had their next couple of chances, but the only one worth mentioning was a long, curling effort from Rooney, which sailed over the Crawley crossbar.
Steve Evans made his first substitution of the match bringing on Richard Brodie for McAllister in a like-for-like change.
United's passing game started pressing the visitors back, but it was way too stagnant and slow to cause any problems for Crawley.
Like he used to do, Rooney started to drop deep to get the ball, but he did not have the real urge to get on the end of Bébé's left-footed cross and it went behind for a goal kick.
As his twin brother did 10 minutes earlier, Fabio seemed to have picked up an injury himself, and was replaced by Darren Fletcher, who slotted to in at right-back with O'Shea going over to the left.
Frustration and nerves were looking to set in for United, and it allowed Brodie to send in a lofted cross to the middle of the box, but David Hunt steered his volley the wrong side of Lindegaar's right-hand post.
Smalling, like he did against City, made a surging run forward, but Rooney's arrant pass missed both his and Chicharito's run down the right.
Jamie Cook, who replaced William Gibson, got passed O'Shea and sent a dangerous cross to the far post, which was poorly cleared by Fletcher, and Tubbs did his best Rooney impersonation with an overhead kick, but, thankfully, it went over the crossbar.
United were being outmatched by the non-league side, and Crawley were sensing an a priceless equalizer.
Smalling gave away a cheap free-kick just over 25 yards from goal, but a slip from Howell saw his curling effort go well over the United bar.
Evans made his final roll of the dice by throwing on Simon Rusk for Smith.
Wes Brown slipped and gifted the possession back to Crawley, but the center-back was shown the yellow card for illegally using his hand to stop a potential attack by the visitors.
From the resulting free-kick, Tubbs went for power over placement and his shot tailed well over Lindegaard's bar.
Without question, Crawley Town were showing that they were the better side in the last quarter of an hour by keeping the ball and passing the ball around the stagnant United players.
To add insult to injury, Rooney not only was guilty of a foul throw, but he also earned himself a silly yellow card for a push-from-behind on Brodie.
With four minutes of stoppage time added on, Crawley was given a glimmer of a hope of forcing a replay, and Cook bombarded forward and it needed a telling block from Smalling to cut out the cross.
The pressure built and Crawley earned a corner, which made its way to Brodie at the far post, but his header clipped Lindegaard's crossbar.
At the other end, Chicharito picked out Rooney, but his shot went agonizingly wide of the far post.
To the relief of the existing crowd left at Old Trafford, the referee blew the final whistle and Manchester United escaped through to the Sixth Round of the FA Cup.
Matchball
Wes Brown, who has fell out of favor in the United pecking order for his well-documented fall out with Sir Alex, did well to score the lone goal of the match, but also keep the visitors out at the other end.
Ratings
A. Lindegaard - 5; Rafael - 5 (C. Smalling - 6), J. O'Shea - 5, W. Brown - 6, Fabio - 5 (D. Fletcher - 5); M. Carrick - 6, D. Gibson - 6, Anderson - 6 (W. Rooney - 5); Bébé - 4, J. Hernandez - 5, G. Obertan - 5
Goals
W. Brown (28')
Statistics
Possession: 47%
Corners: 7
Shots (On Target): 7 (4)
Fouls Conceded (Suffered): 6 (4)
Bookings: W. Brown, W. Rooney
Attendance: 74,778
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