Sidley suffer second half collapse

The Blues were on course to extend their run of four wins and a draw from their five previous outings when Peter Baker gave them a half time lead at Three Bridges.

But three post interval goals, allied to the sending-off of player-manager Liam Barham, meant they lost 3-1.

"First half we did really well," said Barham, whose dismissal was the second time he'd been given an early bath this term. "They played a lot of football, but they tended to play in front of us and didn't cause us too many problems. We could have had two or three first half and we were quite happy coming in at half time.

"But it was just a classic sucker punch after about a minute in the second half and it broke our backs because we were under the cosh for the whole of the half. Instead of saying 'right, they've scored, let's get on with it and knuckle down', we went into our shells a little bit."

That key equalising goal came when Pat Dunning got in behind Sidley left-back Chas Lister and his cut-back was touched on by Kevin Townsend - one of several Bridges players possessing higher level experience - and Pat Massaro tapped home.

Mark Burt, who won just about everything in the air all afternoon, volleyed Bridges in front with 20 minutes to go and James Rhodes sealed victory for the Crawley side by slamming home a rebound from Jerome Elroy's shot in the 89th minute.

It was that goal that prompted Barham's dismissal as a result of a second yellow card for dissent to a referee's assistant.

"There was a clear foul on Chas (in the run-up to the goal)," Barham commented, "and I just asked the linesman 'was that not a foul'? I thought the ref (Daniel Austin) was an absolute disgrace."

Sidley, who gave a debut to on loan Hastings United winger Dominic Cruttenden, had earlier taken a 35th minute lead when Baker, who had previously been denied by a point blank stop from Alan Mansfield, dispatched a quickly taken free kick.

Dunning had a shot saved by the legs of Sidley goalkeeper Peter Newstead and Steve Causon volleyed against the crossbar for the home side before the break.