'Really brave' - Scott Lindsey says he 'enjoyed' Crawley Town's performance despite 4-0 defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion
Crawley Town boss Scott Lindsey said his side were ‘really brave’ in their 4-0 defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion in the Carabao Cup.
Reds had 55 per cent possession and a number of chances to score against Albion but in the end Fabian Hurzeler’s side showed their class and were clinical in front of goal.
Simon Adringa, Jeremy Sarmiento, Mark O’Mahony and Adam Webster were the Albion scores. The game was marred by Matt O’Riley limping off after a nasty challenge from Reds skipper Jay Williams, which went unpunished, and Jack Roles receiving a red card for an equally bad challenge on Yasin Ayari.
But despite the result, Lindsey was pleased with how his side played. "I enjoyed us tonight,” he said. “I know we lost the game 4-0 but I thought we were really brave with the way we played with the ball. I thought we had some really good moments, and I felt that we were brave in in terms of what we did without the ball.
"We went man for man against them, which was brave from my point but probably cost in the end because when you're playing against that kind of quality, it just takes one moment for us was to switch off and the opposition to get in, and they were really clinical with their four goals, but that's what happens when you play against players of that ilk.
“It's great for our learning and we'll be better for that.”
Before the game, Lindsey said it will be a match they can learn a lot from. So what were his main takeaways?
He said: "I've got to debrief and and watch it back and clip it up but you know those moments where we cut through, our XG wouldn't be actually through the roof, however, there was a lot moments where we flashed balls across the face of their goal, we didn’t get on the end of them, so they won’t get registered.
“We probably need to be more clinical in their moments than we were. And I think what was pleasing for me tonight, and in terms of the learning side of things was how intense Brighton was on the press, they were really intense.
“We've not dealt with anything like that certainly this season, where a team has really pressed us in that manner, really aggressive and took for us to play kind of calm football through their press at times and round it and sometimes over it,.
"It was good for our learning and we can watch that back and always be better from that. But I've got to hand it to Brighton tonight, they were good, tin terms of how they pressed us, but also within their goals. They were really clinical in their moments.”
Not many teams will go to the Amex and have more possession than Hurzeler’s side, but Crawley did with 55% but Lindsey said: “That’s what we do and how we want to play. We want to dominate the ball against everyone.
"But we have got to be more efficient with it, there’s no point having 55% of the ball if you are going to lose 4-0 so we need to make sure we stick the ball in their net and stop them from scoring.”