'Attitude and mentality' - Crawley Town boss praises players in draw with Reading

Substitute Panutche Camara scored a close-range effort late in the game, which cancelled out Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan’s strike in the first half.

It was a poor game of football from both sides, with a lack of chances, threat on goal and a host of sloppy errors.

The Reds will not mind this though, with their losing streak coming to an end and them collecting a valuable point in their hopes of staying in League One next season.

On the game, Elliot said: “It was a scrappy game, wasn't it? Obviously, it wasn't for two teams that pride themselves on trying to play football.

“It was really tough because we sort of countered each other out so it had become a bit of a battle and transitional. I thought we handled it pretty well most of the time. I think probably there were a few chances in both boxes which sort of reflected the game.

“A disappointing goal to give away but a great attitude and mentality from the lads to get the goal back and then go on and win it."

It was a lovely day for a football match, with the sun out and temperatures starting to rise again, but this did not do any favours to the pitch, which was a factor in the game being so poor in quality.

Elliot said: “Ironically, probably all the tactical stuff went out the window because of the state of the game and obviously the pitch, which I think is documented, was poor so we weren't able to play, and it was dry because of the heat.

“Ben (Crawley’s groundsman) does an amazing job with groundsmen but obviously it's getting to that stage of the season where it deteriorates. The work they've done to keep it as it is brilliant. Once it gets dry and sticky it's hard to play for both teams."

Camara’s goal was his second for Crawley, and a well taken goal with him running into the box before he tapped it home.

This was made even more special with the fact that he is fasting through Ramadan, something that his manager had a lot of respect for.

Elliot said: “I'm so pleased with Pan [Camara]. Pam was really on during the week and obviously it's Ramadan so he's fasting, and he gives you everything so it's brilliant to have Pam on the pitch and he gets the goal. From willingness to run, willingness to do everything so I'm really pleased with him.”

Crawley at times did some really nice stuff in the middle of the pitch, with Kamari Doyle multiple times making dangerous runs through the middle and Will Swan having found space on the left-hand side at times.

This would lead to nothing the majority of the time, with them getting no support from their teammates, something that Elliot wants to work on at the training ground.

He said: “We've got into really good areas but haven't gotten the end of it and that's something we need to improve on 100%.

“It also comes with control in the build so you're able to get numbers in. It comes with physical aspects and everything but we're better at it.

“We get the goal because of it and you keep doing it and we need to keep doing that but if we show that mentality and that desire and that willingness to work, willingness to run, willingness to do the horrible stuff, we know we've got quality and there were some really good performances today and it's a point towards where we need to be.”