'A monster', 'not your Terry Butcher type', 'exceptional' - Crawley Town boss praises defensive unit after impressive victory

The hosts took the lead through Harry Forster but were pegged back minutes later when Brandon Hanlan headed in from a corner.

The Reds left it late to pick up a winner, with substitutes Armando Quitirna and Kamari Doyle both having grabbed a goal to seal a deserved victory under the lights.

Despite the attacking threat produced that game, Elliot gave a special mention to the defenders after another good performance.

Two who caught Elliot’s eye were Charlie Barker and Ben Radcliffe, who have both impressed this season after being bought in in the summer and winter transfer window respectfully.

Elliot said: “Yeah, but it's just their character before anything else. Ben's [Radcliffe] a real winner, and he's a monster. He looks after himself, he's so professional.

“Like Charlie Barker really, when you come into the start of the season, if he'd have played ten games, you'd have said that's a good season for Charlie. In fact, he's actually playing every week and we're hanging our hopes on him and actually you don't even single him out because his levels are so good every week.

“There's things he needs to improve on, he's in possession at times and sometimes in the organisation but he's 21 and he's playing League One football. He's been exceptional, Ben's added to the group massively.”

As well as them, Elliot had reserved a special mention for the captain Dion Conroy, who he praised after coming back from a long-term injury which forced him to miss much of the start of the season.

He said: “It's gone under the radar Dion's return because we have conceded goals, but Dion's managed his body after five months with no football. We're still only six weeks into his recovery and he's just trained three days and played every single minute so that's a proper captain.

“He might not be the Terry Butcher type of captain but there's different types of leadership and leading by example and being a good person and keeping the values of the club is what Dion's doing.”

The former Newcastle and Charlton keeper went on to praise the depth of his defence, as he said: “He's only going to get better and better and with Rory coming in obviously he's an add to us, we've got Benji [Tanimu] there, we've got [Rory] Feely coming back hopefully, Toby [Mullarkey].

“We just need to know that it's a squad that wins games. The squad won the game today, everyone.”

Another player who Elliot praised was Will Swan, after another game where he played in an unnatural wing-back role, which he has fulfilled in recent weeks on both flanks due to injuries in the squad.

He has impressed in that position with his work rate, and has also popped up in the final third many times, with his attacking senses coming in useful in this new position.

On Swan, Elliot said: “[Will] Swan has gone under the radar in the fact that he works so hard, he's never really played this amount of games before.

“Swan probably wouldn't mind me saying he's more of an impact player as he's come through the ranks at Mansfield but he's got a definite goal threat and we found ourselves in a situation with injuries that we've had to manipulate the team to get Swan in it but also have that attacking threat where we've got three strikers on the pitch.

“Swan's work rate just sets the tone for the team, and he does so much for the group, not many number nines will go and play left wing back away from home and at home and run up and down and give absolutely everything.

“He was struggling but he came in, he did the work, and he put himself available, he could easily have said I'm struggling but he didn't, and he went out there and then obviously that sublime touch and you know we haven't seen the best of this one yet.

“I still think he's been excellent so really pleased with him.”

Swan and the whole defensive unit will need to be at their best to keep out Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday, with the Reds looking to get back-to-back wins in the league for the first time since the start of the season.