Crawley Town manager Yates apologises for comments made to a fan

He has admitted he was wrong for admonishing a supporter for shouting criticism about the team.

Yates wants to personally apologise to the fan.

He said: “I regret probably saying what I said but I just want the supporters to back the team.

“All I could hear was this one guy just bemoaning my players and he was calling them donkeys on Blackpool Beach, just pathetic stuff.

“If he’s got genuine criticism and he can pin-point that, no problem.”

Yates regrets having a go at the fan but would like to hear a more positive backing from the Crawley Town supporters.

He said: “I apologise saying to him for saying what I said. I would like the supporters to make a bit more noise and encouragement.

“My players haven’t gone out there all season not wanting to put in 100 per cent.

“I don’t think you can criticise the players for that.

“We can be criticised all of us as a group for not quite having the quality that we’d all love to see, or our efforts might be a bit misplaced at times. But it’s not through a lack of effort and that’s what I took offence to.

“I will probably at the next home game and apologise in person because it wasn’t a very clever thing to do.

“I care about my team, I care about the group of players I’ve got on the pitch. Just mindless name-calling and stuff like that, especially when it is a quiet place anyway and you can hear everything!

“It was one particular guy making one particular noise and I had a little nibble and I’m big enough to hold my hands up and say maybe say I shouldn’t have said what I said.”

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