Mark Yates: We kept them to a single shot from 30 yards

Crawley Town V AFC Wimbledon (Pic by Jon Rigby) SUS-150815-191552008

He stressed how good they are and also added that they confined the visitors to just one 30-yard shot in the whole game.

Yates added: “For me they’ll win the league, for me they have the best manager and the best players by far.

“They are really pleasing on the eye and have recruited players who can get them out of this division. I fully expect them to be champions come the end of the season.

“Tonight we had some walking wounded out there with some players who have big knocks.

“We are still a massive work in progress and we have the five toughest games you can ever wish to imagine at the start of the season.

“There was no point me going toe-to-toe with these tonight and open us up until maybe later in the season when we are a bit more used to how I want to play and a bit fitter and stronger and cohesive.

“Tonight was a real disciplined performance. We have kept a team which for me is going to go up to one single shot from 30 yards. Our keeper had one save from distance.

“We have a small squad and we had five or six players with knocks from Saturday and the physio department did a great job patching a few up and making sure they played.

“It’s important in our first five games we can have as many points as we can so we can have confidence for the rest of the season.”

Yates praised the fans for getting behind the team.

He said: “I’m really pleased they stayed behind tonight and clapped the players efforts off the pitch to praise them for their efforts.”

Realistic Yates added: “Tonight was about getting something from the game and not rolling over and having our bellies tickled.

“They didn’t have too much of the ball at times but the players have worked hard for a good point.”

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!