When Josh Flint when on a marauding run to set up Crawley Town's first goal against Fleetwood Town, it was a like watching a rerun of a a goal scored at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this week.
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The Reds defender, after quick thinking from keeper Jojo Wollacott, ran almost the length of the pitch before laying off the perfect pass to Louis Flower, whop put Reds ahead.
And it was a repeat of Micky van de Ven’s much-lauded goal against Copenghagen in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
The only thing missing was Flint scoring himself, but everyone in the stadium was still full of praise for the defender for the part he played.
And when we asked Harry Forster, who scored what turned out to be the winner in the 2-1 victory for Reds, if Flint had been comparing himself to van de Ven after the game, his reply was: “Do you know what? That's what I was shouting at him. it's an unbelievable run and fair play to him, how fast he ran up that field.
"If the gaps are there for our centre-back to go on a marauding run at 80 yards down the pitch, then we're going to do it. That came from their corner, so, we've got all that space there then. But when they're banking up like that, it's impossible for the centre-backs to do that, but with all that space there. It was an unbelievable run from Flinty.”
And boss Scott Lindsey praised goalkeeping coach Kris Dixon for his part in the goal. “The credit's got to go to the goalkeeping coach as well, Dicko, because we do a lot of work on defensive set-pieces and we don't just defend the set-piece, we then talk about and go through in training what it looks like if Jojo catches it.
"Can we spring off the back of them and go counter-attack quickly to kind of turn their strength in the fact that they've got a corner into their weakness, the fact that they've got all their players up the pitch? And I thought that Jojo did it great. Flint, he ran brilliantly with the ball, didn't he? And I thought Louis Flower's movement off the ball, his willing determination to run forward was excellent and a great finish from the boy.”
And Forster said there was only one thing on hs mind when he got the ball leading up to his goal. “100%. When it was opening up like that, I was just waiting for the centre-back to come and press me, but he didn't. So, I was like, ‘oh, even better’. I get a couple of touches at my feet, get near the box and then finish it. That was all in my mind,” he said.
The winger, who replaced Scott Malone early on after the he got an injury, has got a habit of scoring worldies for Crawley, but he didn’t rank this as his best – he said his one against Bristol Rovers a couple of years ago bettered it. “I actually prefer dribbling goals to shots from outside the box,” he said.