Crawley boss Mark Yates: '˜We let in some really poor goals'

Crawley Town manager Mark Yates praised his side for their first half display but acknowledged the second half led to a frustrating afternoon.
Crawley Town V Mansfield 30/1/16 (Photo by Jon Rigby) SUS-160130-184540008Crawley Town V Mansfield 30/1/16 (Photo by Jon Rigby) SUS-160130-184540008
Crawley Town V Mansfield 30/1/16 (Photo by Jon Rigby) SUS-160130-184540008

He highlighted good work in the attack by Gwion Edwards but criticised his players for letting in poor goals after the break and getting involved in the melee.

Yates also reckoned the wrong Crawley player received the red card.

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He said: “We were excellent first half, we were nice and compact and organised. We looked a massive threat with Gwion. He scored a great goal. l thought he could have done more with his chances that were presented him.

“At half-time we didn’t say much, just reiterated what we had done well we needed to do and players said the right things.

“But second half we didn’t do the right things. Right from kick-off we didn’t get in our right positions and let in a sloppy goal.

“The sending off - a disgraceful challenge from their lad (Shay McCartan). They were saying on their bench he was bundled over in the build-up, but it doesn’t mean he can go and do that - it doesn’t mean he can straight-leg one of my players.

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“The referee’s only got one decision to make but we go and cloud his judgement. I genuinely feel the referee, linesmen and everybody lost the plot for two or three minutes.

“We decided to try to show we were bigger men than they were instead of being professional and getting on with it.

“Why not try and play them off the park playing against ten men and let’s win the game? We let ourselves down in that respect.

“My best defender (Jon Ashton) had to go off the pitch from a tackle and Walts (Simon Walton) was sent-off for throwing a punch.

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“I have watched it 20 times and I can’t see Walts throwing a punch - he was miles away from it to start with, there might have been a case for someone else being sent-off but Walts went in there to break it up.

“It was pandemonium out there. Their substitute keeper ended up running on the pitch. Why can’t the fourth official stop that? Their bench was an absolute disgrace.

“We’ve lost our best defender and our linchpin at the back for half an hour of this game and the next three more games and that’s very hard to take.

“The game opened up like we didn’t want it to and we reverted to type and conceded some really, really poor goals.”

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