Defeat in the end but a good performance nonetheless.
The visitors on Saturday, Corinthian FC, definitely started the brighter of the two teams, taking advantage perhaps of some rustiness within the Crow's squad, having not played for a month and created the best chances early on.
Collick, in the Crows goal, had to be on his toes to prevent Palmer giving the visitors an early lead and he made some other saves, notably from Palmer again and Daramy, which kept the score at 0-0.
It wasn't all one way though, Ridley put over a teasing cross which just alluded Death, who was playing up front due to the Crows not having their usual attackers available for this game.
However, Collick was not able to do anything in the 17th minute when Daramy broke free on the left and used his pace to breakthrough the Crow's defence and he cooly finishes past Collick to put the visitors 1-0 up.
From the restart the Crows force a couple of corners which were cleared by the Corinthian defenders but the home side win the ball back and Death finds Cameron out wide and his excellent cross was met by captain, Jason Barton and his downward header gave the visiting 'keeper no chance, therefore, it was 1-1 after 19 minutes.
A feature of the first half especially, was the pace of the visitors in the forward positions and after 24 minutes Daramy put them 2-1 up when his cross-shot went in off the far post despite the best efforts of Collick.
To their credit the home side went back on the front foot and following good work by Ademiluyi, Death's effort is just blocked by two Corinthian defenders and Carpenter then does well to beat three players but his shot lacked any real pace and was saved by the Corinthian stopper.
The away side did find the net late on but the effort was ruled out for an earlier foul on Cameron and perhaps if there's any criticism which could be laid at the feat of the players and match officials, is that there were too many free kicks during the first period, one foul earning Barton a yellow card.
Therefore, the half time interval was reached with the visitors 2-1 up but it was too much of an even game for either the away side to feel comfortable and for the home side to be out of contention.
The home side started the second period strongly, Cameron firing just over and Barton testing the 'keeper with a long range effort which he did well to push over the bar.
Corinthian should have probably gone 3-1 up earlier than they did, Palmer missing a golden chance, however, in the 58th minute, it did become 3-1, Tanner putting the ball into the net, despite two great blocks by Collick.
Again, from the kick off the Crows went on the attack and Carpenter caused havoc in the Corinthian defence and whilst his shot was blocked, Ademiluyi was on hand to sidestep a couple of challenges and put the ball passed the away goalie to make the score 3-2 to the away side in the 59th minute.
The home side were on top at this point, efforts from Ridley and Trotter tested the away defence and then Funnell replaced Death as the home side searched for the equaliser in the 75th minute.
Further efforts followed from Boddy, twice and Ademiluyi but the breakthrough just didn't come and whilst the Crows were doing the attacking, the away side still looked dangerous when they broke and eventually, instead of 3-3, it became 4-2 to the visitors when substitute Nwitua scored after beating the offside trap in the 80th minute.
Murray then came on for Ademiluyi and the Crows poured forward, Rich going the closest to making it 4-3 but his effort was blocked and eventually cleared.
After such a break it was a good performance from the team against a very good side and it was also a good game to watch on a cold day.