Crawley 2 Derby 1: Torres nets late winner as non-league side dump Rams out of Cup

Crawley 2 Derby 1: Torres nets late winner as non-league side dump Rams out of Cup

A man called Torres sealed a night of glory. Sergio Torres, Crawley Town's £50,000 buy from Peterborough United, that is.

The
Argentine, who paid his way to a trial with Brighton to escape working
in his father's brick factory, scored the late winner that embarrassed
Nigel Clough's Championship side amid scenes of pandemonium that will
forever be remembered in West Sussex.






Unbelievable scenes: Torres is mobbed after scoring a dramatic 90th-minute winner


Loitering on the edge of the
Derby area a minute into injury time, the midfielder swung his right
boot at a Dean Howell corner which was scuffed in his direction.

As
the ball flew through a forest of bodies and into the net, hysteria
took hold as the scale of Crawley's achievement reverberated around
Broadfield Stadium.

Not
too shabby for a man who, after rejection by Brighton, ended up at
Molesey and then Basingstoke - while getting up at 5am to cycle to his
job stacking shelves in Boots.






Champagne moment: Torres (second left) leads the celebrations in Crawley's dressing room after the final whistle


Crawley manager Steve Evans,
who now faces a fourth-round trip to League Two Torquay, said: 'It's a
great night for this club and this town. There was only one team trying
to win the tie and trying to play the football and create chances. We
were thinking of taking Sergio off. For whatever reason, I changed my
mind. The rest is history.'

The
FA Cup was made for evenings like this. An intoxicating mixture of a
non-League side refusing to believe in football's natural order against a
side 61 places higher than them, fans crammed in on all sides, foul
weather contributing to horrible conditions and drama aplenty.

Throw
in a ninth-minute penalty save by Crawley's Michel Kuipers and the
euphoria of the home side going in front and Derby could not help but
play up to their role as fall guys.








Eyes on the prize: Craig McAllister opens the scoring for Crawley






So close are the stands that as Kris
Commons sprinted away down the left wing on a fourth-minute
counter-attack and was forced into touch, even the pitchside barrier
could not halt his progress, the midfielder ending up on his back on
the concrete terracing beyond.

That was nothing compared to the discomfort Commons felt when he struck
his spot-kick against the knees of Kuipers after Chris Porter had
fallen over the goalkeeper's outstretched arms to win a penalty.

For 28 minutes, Crawley created little until a flowing move ended with
Matt Tubbs crossing for Scott Neilson to plant a firm header against
the Rams' bar.

The
next attack saw them take the lead. A dropping ball inside the area
landed at the feet of Craig McAllister, who swept his low shot into the
far corner.

Derby
roused themselves after the interval and after Neilson had wasted the
chance to put Crawley 2-0 ahead by shooting straight at Stephen
Bywater, Miles Addison equalised with a driving header from Commons'
free-kick.

Most
non-League sides would have been content to play for a lucrative replay
at that point but Crawley did not entertain such thoughts and sent the
4,145 crowd into delirium with Torres's late winner