Crawley Town's Joe McNerney: 'Glenn Morris is the best goalkeeper I've played with'

Goals from Josh Payne, McNerney, and captain Dannie Bulman helped the hosts on the way to victory, but it was the inspired performance of Reds stopper Morris that ensured the three points.

Morris made a series of superb saves to deny the Railwaymen, especially in the first half, as wave after wave of Crewe attacks crashed against the Reds backline.

McNerney hailed the display of Crawley’s number one, although the defender did joke that he had become ‘sick of hearing about him’.

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He said: “He’s overrated. He makes a couple of saves and everyone raves about him. I’m sick of hearing about him to be honest.

“No, he’s brilliant and he’s the best goalkeeper I’ve played with. He keeps us in games a lot of the time so all credit to him.

“I’ve not seen him in the League Two team of the year but it’s very harsh him not being there. Some of the saves he makes are outstanding.”

Cioffi made five changes from the squad that fell 6-2 to Southend United on Tuesday night in the FA Cup.

Defenders Mark Connolly, Lewis Young and Josh Doherty were all dropped, whilst Filipe Morais was ruled out with injury and top-scorer Ollie Palmer missed out through suspension.

Many felt that Crawley Town would miss the presence of Palmer, who has hit 11 goals in 21 games, but his replacement Dom Poleon put in a fine performance.

McNerney praised the ex-Bradford City forward’s display and felt that the win over Crewe was a fantastic result due to the number of Reds absentees.

He added: “Ollie’s been brilliant, and he’s scored a lot of goals for us, but Dom worked very hard today. He didn’t get a goal, and it would’ve been nice for him, but he worked hard and pushed the two centre-halves.

“We had a lot missing if you have a look at our squad - a lot of experienced players, a lot of important players. It was a big test as the run we are on has been quite hard for us so it’s a great result. The changing room is very pleased.”

The victory over the Railwaymen halted a run of eight Crawley games without a win in all competitions. During this spell the Reds were knocked out of the FA Cup, Checkatrade Trophy, and the Sussex Senior Cup.

McNerney was glad to have finally notched up a win but felt that some of the results during Crawley’s barren winless run belie their recent performances.

The defender said: “We hadn’t won in eight games but look at the competitions we’ve played in – we drew with Southend from League One in the FA Cup, and then we had the Checkatrade Trophy loss (away to League One Gillingham) which I thought was very harsh.

“We had a very disappointing result in the Sussex Senior Cup (a 3-1 home defeat to Bostik South East side Haywards Heath Town) but the actual run looks worse than it is. You always need to win games and we’re delighted to have done that.”