'Dogged' Bradford were 'horrible to play against' says Crawley Town assistant head coach

The Reds, looking for back-to-back wins at home after their 4-2 win over Barrow on Saturday, found themselves a goal down early on after Lee Novak pounced on a loose ball, spilled by Glenn Morris. Crawley hit back within 15 minutes after Harry Pritchard turned the ball past his own keeper, from Sam Matthew's dangerous cross.

Recap the action here Bradbury was again taking charge of Crawley in the absence of manager John Yems, due to personal reasons.

When asked if he was happy with a point, the assistant head coach said: "No, to be honest. They've not been in great form, had a change in manager.

"They were dogged, horrible to play against and hard working. As soon as we got the equaliser, they seemed almost happy to take that point back up to Yorkshire.

"We had quite a lot of the ball in the first half but didn't hurt them enough. We're disappointed we haven't beaten Bradford tonight but we've got to take things from it."

The Reds made two changes from Saturday's win, bringing in Nick Tsaroulla and Archie Davies for Tyler Frost and David Sesay.

"We felt they [Bradford] normally play a three [at the back] and thought we could match them up," Bradbury said. "A bit of quality to be able to hurt them and the energy from Nick and Archie. Fresh legs in the team in the wing-back area, which was going to be a vital role.

"We did it quite well and put some crosses in but they managed to get first and second balls the majority of the time. It was one of them nights tonight."

Midfielder Tsaroulla, 21, who was making his third start for the club, said 'it was a shame' that the Reds couldn't find a winning goal.

He added: "We dominated the game, I thought we played well. We felt like we could have come away with all three points. It's not a loss and we keep going."

The game was played in front of 1,500 fans at the People's Pension Stadium, with many not afraid to express their discontent at some of the decisions that went against Crawley.

There were calls for offside in the build-up to Bradford's opener and Crawley had two strong penalty shouts waved away.

"We have missed [the fans arguing decisions]," Bradbury said. "It didn't make a difference today, as a lot of the 50/50 decisions went their way, but our fans were getting behind us and supporting us.

"The first goal certainly looked offside. If you had the lines out with VAR, it would be offside, but we don't have that unfortunately.

"It's a tough job being a referee or linesman. I wouldn't want to do it.

"We do seem to have our fair share of bad decisions going against us. Hopefully it will swing round at some point. You've got to take it on the chin and move on."