Crawley v Morecambe preview
Friday 14 September 2018 12:47, UK
Gabriele Cioffi will take charge of Crawley for the first time for their League Two clash against struggling Morecambe.
Cioffi sat in the stands at Sincil Bank last week to see his side clinch a 1-0 victory. The Italian has a number of injury problems to contend with but will still hope to name an unchanged line-up.
Jimmy Smith is expected to be out for some time with a serious knee injury, while Romain Vincelot (ankle) is still weeks away from a return.
Morecambe go into the game desperate for a change in fortunes after losing six of their first seven games. Last week's loss to Swindon saw the welcome return of A-Jay Leitch Smith and the striker is set to keep his place provided he suffered no reaction.
Mark Halstead will be pushing to return in goal after missing last week's defeat with a bruised hip. The Shrimps are still without Andrew Tutte, who has missed the last five games in all competitions.
Opta stats
Crawley have never beaten Morecambe at home in the Football League (P4 W0 D3 L1).
Since a 6-0 hammering in their first Football League meeting in September 2011, Morecambe haven't kept a single clean sheet in a league match against Crawley.
Crawley ended a run of eight home league matches without a victory (D3 L5), beating Bury 3-2 in their last game on home soil.
Morecambe have failed to win any of their previous nine league games away from home (D3 L6), failing to score in five of the previous six.
Of the eight goals scored by Crawley Town players this season, Ollie Palmer has scored five of them.
