Croydon Athletic resoundingly beat Corinthian Casuals 3-0 at the KT Stadium last night in a match that saw both teams reduced to 10 men.

The beginning of the first half saw little in the way of clear cut chances, though Rory Hill had a long range shot just wide in the 12th minute and Saheed Sankoh for the visitors saw his free kick well saved by Ross Flitney in the Croydon goal.

Former Rams’ player Tyrone Myton saw his chip go over the head of Flitney but also over the goal and it didn’t look like either side were going to get the decisive goal.

With Goma Lambu limping off in the 30th minute to join Tom Bolarinwa on the injured wingers list, the Rams had to reform with Danny Waldren taking the reins in midfield.

The back four for Croydon looked solid, with the defensive partnership of Bradley Duke and Jeremy Williams looking strong throughout the match and Joe Howe and Justin Gregory on to every Casuals attack down the wings.

Bentley Graham and Gary Noel both had half chances to open the scoring but didn’t really trouble the Casuals keeper until the 38th minute, when it was Graham’s strike that put the Rams 1-0 up and gave the midfielder his first goal for the club.

The second half saw the Rams play with more purpose and in the 60th minute Ben Godfrey latched on to a throughball and neatly rounded the keeper to put the home side 2-0 up.

Five minutes later it was 3-0 with Hill collecting his first goal since joining the Rams and Croydon looked comfortable for the rest of the half.

Unfortunately the referee saw fit to dismiss Justin Gregory following a second yellow card offence and in the 81st minute he evened things up by showing Byron Brown for Casuals a red card, again for a second bookable offence.

With numerous yellow cards being shown during the game it may have looked to an outsider as though daggers were drawn throughout the match, whereas in fact this was not the case and the match was marred by the numerous stoppages.

The Rams were happy to pick up the points though, although other matches in the league did not go their way and they remain in sixth positio, five points off top spot.

Croydon Athletic: Ross Flitney, Joe Howe, Justin Gregory, Chris Piper, Jeremy Williams, Bradley Duke, Rory Hill, Bentley Graham (Neil Smith, 80), Ben Godfrey, Gary Noel (Nathan Green, 80), Goma Lambu (Danny Waldren, 32) Subs not used: Dan Moody, Scott Forrester.