Arsenal u21s beat Crawley Town: Assistant manager Lee Bradbury reaction

The Reds, under the leaderships of Bradbury, Dannie Bulman and Lewis Young, lost 2-1 with Max Watters scoring on his debut.

But Bradbury said it was 'a very pleasing night' if you took the result out of it.

He said: "It was a good game. They were bright, energetic and moved the ball well. We had a good shape about us and started the game quite well and we had a good energy about us.

"I was disappointed with the first goal as far as it wasn't given as offside, I think the lad was about three yards offside.

"We reacted well to it and got the goal. We know Max has a lot of pace and he can be a real threat.

"Take the result out of it, it was a very pleasing tonight as far as performance, getting minutes into the players' legs and given the gaffer problems in selection."

Watters stood out but Bradbury was more impressed with how the team performed.

He said: "There were good individual performances but as a team team they performed really well tonight. We dictated the play and were intelligent in the way we pressed.

"The young lads took the information on well. And when we had the ball we looked decent as well. We had some opportunities which we were disappointed we didn't score but overall a good night.

"We need strength in depth. Max is similar to Nadders [Ashley Nadesan]. He wants to run in behind, he's quick and wants to get on the end of things. But it wasn't just Max, there were some really good performances from the senior pros who led by example."