Carabao Cup: Crawley Town manager hoping for second-round draw against Premier League or Championship club after win over Joey Barton's Bristol Rovers

The Reds advanced to the second round after Tom Nichols’ 73rd-minute strike secured Crawley’s first win of the season last night (Tuesday, August 10). Recap all the action here.

Manager Kevin Betsy was delighted with the win.

He said “I’m really happy with the group and individual performances in the game.

"It was great to get the first win of the season at home in front of our supporters.

"It was a really good performance, and we fully deserved the victory.

“It’s nice to be in the next round, it’s a great competition.

"We might draw a Premier League or a Championship club in the next round which obviously would be a great experience for us.”

Crawley made six changes to the side that lost 1-0 at home to Leyton Orient on Saturday and Betsy spoke of how important it is to have a big squad.

He said: “We wanted to build a really good squad, made up of youth and experience.

"The players will all get their chance to play, every manager up and down the country wants competition for places.”

Betsy said it was an important win but insisted he wasn’t ‘panicking’ despite losing their opening two games of the season.

He said: “We’re not panicking, we know the level of our performance in the last two games has been very good in terms of our possession and our style but we haven’t created enough chances and we put that right tonight.

"In the first couple of games, the players have been playing really well in many aspects of their game, it was just the minor details.

"We’ve addressed those details.

“We don’t get too high when we win and don’t get too low when we lose.”

Addressing the absence of Dom Telford, Tobi Omole and James Tilley from the matchday squad, Betsy added: “We had to manage a few of the players

with knocks and things and it wasn’t a game we needed to risk anyone.

"It’s a case of managing the group, we don’t need to rush anyone. It’s a long season and we need everyone fit.”

The draw for the Carabao Cup second round will take place live on Sky Sports following the conclusion of Sheffield Wednesday vs Sunderland tonight (Wednesday, August 10).

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