Crawley Town boss Mark Yates hails ‘magnificent’ Reds

He thought they were the better side throughout was pleased they responded well from Tuesday night’s disappointing defeat at Morecambe.

Yates said: “I thought for the majority of the game we were really good and then out game management in the last ten minutes was not our strongest forte.

“We dominated the first half, we were excellent, really good. My only gripe to the players was we hadn’t scored.

“We had a couple of great chances. We had done exactly what we wanted to do with the game bar score goals and the message at half time was more of the same, put some goals in it and we’ll be alright and they were great.

“The boys are exhausted at the end of a heck of a long week in terms of travelling, 1,250 miles it has taken its toll, credit to them for that for coming up here, putting in a really good performance and getting us a really important three points.

Yates agreed with the referee’s decision to send-off Scott Harrison for stopping Gwion Edwards’ shot with his arm.

He said: “As far as I was concerned it was a penalty. I don’t know why Rhys decided to take the ball past Rhys and didn’t just slot it but I wasn’t a centre forward!

“Gwion’s smashed it, it’s gone in the back of the net and the lads raised his arm. It was clear-cut as you’ll see. According to the rules the referee doesn’t have any choice. It’s really harsh.

“Gwion’s a massive player for us but second half some of his decision-making wasn’t the clearest I have seen him do and there were a lot of wild swings across the face of goal.

“I was pleased with Rhys (Murphy), I thought he and Matty (Harrold) were a real handful.

“Rhys got on the end of a lovely, measured pass from Gwion and scored that vital second.

“Hartlepool kept going, credit to them but we had enough in the tank to see the game out and I’m delighted for the players.

“We’ve got a long way home. We got home at quarter to five on Wednesday morning which is a tough one and I hope we don’t have a double-header like this again this season!

“The 87 fans were excellent - they made it sound like it was 807. They got their shirts off, it was nice sunny it was lovely up here - I’ve been here in a lot colder situations. They were great and they backed the boys superbly in the second half.

“I have been trying to get over to them that every point is vital. It was disappointing on Tuesday but they’ve bounced back, they were magnificent today, we were really, really good.”

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make this website your homepage

2 Like our Facebook page at facebook.com/pages/Sport-Sussex

3 Follow us on Twitter @SportSussex

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!