The Keys were keen to rediscover their best form after losing to bottom-placed Blyborough United last Sunday. The visitors to Windsor Park represented table-toppers Crown Inn, and brought their unbeaten away record to Crowle hoping to keep ahead of Barnetby United – a task which began to be accomplished when Scott Burdett applied the finishing touch to a ball over the Keys’ defence to give Crown a lead in the fourth minute.

The visitors’ advantage disappeared when Crowle keeper Aidan Wilkinson held on to a Crown corner and quickly released the ball to Jack Martinson. Martinson took the ball to the halfway line before finding Aaron Smith with a pass to the left of the penalty area, from where the winger centred the ball to Jamie Goodhand to apply a first-time finish into Belton’s goal. Martinson would go on to drive a shot against the outside of the post twenty minutes later but the rest of the scoring was to be done by the team from Belton.

Ammar Abbas was in the right place to slide the ball into the Keys’ goal after Wilkinson had blocked a shot eight minutes before the break, and a corner from the right enabled Dan Debnam to power a header into the net six minutes later. The last action of the opening period almost saw the hosts score a second goal, both Smith and Sam Shipman had shots blocked following a Goodhand corner, but that would be the last time that Crown’s goal would be seriously threatened.

Subsitute Joe Jackson clipped the ball over Wilkinson ten minutes into the second half, three minutes before the lead was extended to five-one when the ball fell kindly to another Crown player. The last goal was lobbed in from the D of the penalty area and rounded off The Keys’ heaviest defeat of the season and the first home reversal since December 2023.

Crowle Keys

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