Blackwell sees positive Crawley Town signs but admits: We know we must improve
Crawley Town interim manager Kevin Blackwell says he can see his players are alrwady taking ideas on board – but they know they have a lot moe improving to do.
After Colin Kazim-Richards paid the price for the Reds’ poor start to the League Two season with the sack last Wednesday, former Leeds and Sheffield United boss Blackwell’s first game as interim boss ended 1-1 with Tranmere Rovers in atrocious conditions.
Dylan Morgan scored his fourth goal in as many games to put the Reds ahead after 52 minutes, but a shot from William Vaulks deflected off Priestley Farquharson, leaving Vito Mannone stranded, to equalise on 59 minutes.
Blackwell said: “They were weather conditions not to be playing football in, that’s for sure. It was a blood and guts game, there’s no doubt about that, and both sides gave it everything they’ve got.
"I think any supporter that came and watched that game couldn’t say they weren’t given their money’s worth through effort.
“I’m really pleased from what I saw, really pleased. We’d had two good days’ training. I thought we were quite up for it, and I think they showed that.”
Blackwell was pleased with how the game went considering the big changes seen by the players in the previous few days.
"What I’m pleased with is that you can see they’ve certainly taken stuff on board from the training ground,” he said.” And so, the challenge now is to make sure that we can have that little bit more time and see how much more we can improve.
“And we have to. We know we have to because we know where we are in the league. But every point is absolutely valuable to us. And so, I’m pleased with that point.”
Both sides had plenty of chances to win the game, with Crawley having the better ones.
They were under a lot of pressure in the second half, with Tranmere having six corners late in the game, with the wind howling around the area. However, Crawley dealt with that well.
Blackwell said “That was the key. I think we were looking at what we wanted to do attack-wise. We almost scored from one of their set plays straight away. The goalkeeper (Luke McGee) for them was super. Some of the saves he made really denied us the win.
““But we had to defend, particularly those corners, with Bobby (Faulkner) putting the real quality in there, and they’ve got some strong lads, and it’s one of their main strengths. I thought we dealt with it brilliantly, so I’m really proud of the players for that.”
One of Crawley’s biggest issues so far this season, has been conceding goals. The opposition average nearly two goals per game against the Reds (21 goals in 11 games).
It is something Blackwell has already looked at, trying to instil a structure in his first two training sessions.
He said: “I want us to be much more structured, and we went to a good structure. And, if you stay in games, you’ve got chances of winning.
“As we saw late on, we had two really good chances – one’s headed off the line, another one. Dukey (Stephen Duke-McKenna) had a right good chance.
"If you’re in the game, you can win the game. If you’re not, then you’re in trouble. So, we’ve got to learn that to win games, you’ve got to work to a structure, and I’m pleased with that in this game.”