Barton sets the tone throughout the match.
The away side had to shuffle the pack for this game as goalie Di Bernardo had signed for Burgess Hill Town, Walder, Phipp, Crabb and Clarke were not available for selection due to injury and sickness. All of which meant that the formation had to change from a back three with wing-backs to a flat back four, with the midfield and forwards utilising a two, three, one formation sometimes, whilst using the alternative three, three at other times.
There was a debut for goalkeeper James Shaw who has joined the club from Burgess Hill Town and whilst he had a fairly quiet afternoon, whatever he had to do he did well and very efficiently. Tear came back in to the side and formed a strong back four with Turner, White and Boddy, White having a particularly good match, alongside Turner, making one outstanding goal-saving tackle inside the penalty area during the first 15 minutes.
In fact the first 15 minutes for the Crows was probably their worst period of the game as the players seemed to be trying to get used to the change in formation and not sure where they were supposed to be playing or what they were doing.
However, once everything was sorted out and the players settled down, it became a match the away side controlled throughout and enforced a stranglehold on the game by dominating large sections of the possession and looking threatening every time they got in the opponents half.
The breakthrough came in the 21st minute, Carrington turned neatly inside the penalty area and hit a shot goalwards which beat Chandler in the Lordswood goal but struck his left hand post and rebounded in to the centre of the goal where Barton acted quicker than anyone else to tuck the ball home for 1-0.
The Crows soon made it 2-0 in the 28th minute when Carrington volleyed in from close range after a Tear cross was deflected towards him by a Lordswood defender some six yards out. The only downside for the Crows during this period was a booking for Boddy as he was a bit late with a tackle.
2-0 became 3-0 in the 38th minute following some great work by Attwood, who had a good game throughout, down the Lordswood left, he forged his way into the area before cutting the ball back to Pearson to tuck the ball away from some ten yards out.
Attacks by the home side who seemed quite quick going forward but perhaps lacked a real cutting edge, were rather sporadic and debutant Shaw only had one direct shot to save during the first 45 minutes, Mahon having the shot from the edge of the area.
The second half started as the first ended with the Crows going forward and the away side only had to wait until the 50th minute to go 4-0 up. An excellent run from midfield by Muggeridge, who also had an excellent game, was brought to an end some twenty odd yards out by Blake who received a yellow card for his troubles. Treleaven then inflicted the absolute punishment by burying the direct free kick in to the back of Chandler's net, the 'keeper remaining rooted to the spot as the ball whistled past him over the wall.
At 4-0 the game was safe and a flurry of substitutes by both sides meant that the flow of the game was interrupted somewhat. Lordswood took off Newton and brought the considerably taller Plummer on whilst the Crows replaced the superb Carrington with Pring in the 58th minute. It didn't take Pring long to get involved in the game as he forced a good save from Chandler with a shot from the edge of the area in the 66th minute.
Huggins was replaced by Coppins for Lordswood and then Attwood was only inches away from increasing the Crows lead with a rasping shot across Chandler's goal that went only inches wide in the 70th minute.
Pearson, who had worked hard all game was replaced by Unwin in the 73rd minute and Lordswood made their final substitution only a minute later, Mahon going off and Carter coming on. Another Crows substitution took place only 4 minutes later, Boddy being replaced by Goldsmith in a like-for-like swap.
Plummer received a yellow card for a rather late tackle as the clock wound down and defender Tear found himself near the edge of the home side's area and decide to try his luck with a powerful drive that flew only just over the bar.
The Crows had to play the last 5 minutes plus any added-on time with 10 men as Treleaven had to leave the field of play due to an injury and all three substitutions having been made. However, there was still time for Pring and Attwood to go very close with lob shots from distance that both troubled the Lordswood goalie but just went over the bar.
Just before the final whistle Attwood picked up a yellow card for bringing down Hollick on the touchline, a booking that really could've been avoided so near the end of the game and the Crows 4-0 up.
The general consensus about who was the Crow's Man of the Match from the people I spoke to went to Barton for his steady influence throughout the match.