Brighton and Hove Albion 4 Crawley Town 0
The Seagulls overcame a pacey and feisty Crawley in the unofficial battle of Sussex.
The Reds had a few chances during the match but were unable to finish them.
Albion, on the other hand, found the net four times, with Simon Adingra opening the scoring just after the half hour.
In the second half, Jeremy Sarmiento, Adam Webster and teenager Mark O’Mahony completed the rout.
The downside for Albion was an injury to new £25 million signing Matt O’Riley who limped off after less than 10 minutes.
While Crawley created some good chances, they couldn’t make good on them while Albion eventually overwhelmed the visitors to take their place in the last 32 of the Carabao Cup.
Adingra scored his second goal of the season in the 31st minute and Sarmiento scored his first for the club in the second half.
Webster added the third and substitute Mark O’Mahony grabbed the first goal of his senior career to put Albion 4-0 up.
Julio Enciso had a great game for Albion and went close a number of times and Bart Verbruggen made decent saves from the spirited Crawley attacks.
Carlos Baleba set up the first goal for Adingra.
Albion struck again two minutes after the break, Sarmiento firing the ball high into the roof of the net after super work by Enciso.
Webster planted a header from a Cameron Peupion corner into the bottom corner for 3-0 and O’Mahoney added the fourth after winning the ball on the edge of the area.
Crawley’s Jack Roles saw a straight red card for a lunge at Albion’s Yasin Ayari on 90 minutes.
At the final whistle, Crawley boss Scott Lindsey appeared to get in a heated tangle with substitute Jason Steele and Albion goalkeeping coach Jack Stern and was shepherded away by the stewards.
Second-place Albion play third-place Arsenal in the Premier League at the Emirates on Saturday (31 August) at 12.30pm.
