Clean sheet against Sutton United caps super September for Crawley Town boss

The win meant Reds went unbeaten in September, one draw and four straight league wins, Lindsey has challenged his young, hungry Crawley charges to repeat the clean sheet feat on a more regular basis - if League 2’s joint table toppers are to dream big this season.

Before Sutton were put to the sword 3-0 on Saturday, you have to go back to the opening day (5 August) when Reds last recorded a shutout. Bradford City’s attack was thwarted that day in a 1-0 Reds home win.

“We mentioned that (keeping a clean sheet) before the game today,” said Lindsey. “We said look, in order for us to get to where we want to be, you probably need to keep around 20 clean sheets a season.”

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Goals haven’t been a problem for the new-look Reds this term, but Lindsey is well aware his team need to rack up more clean sheets if they are to maintain there recent winning streak and overall excellent early season form.

“That’s only our second clean sheet so far this season, in my opinion that’s not enough and we want to improve on that. Bradford was our last one and today was our tenth match of the season, so we need to do better at that. But, we’re really pleased with that aspect of our game today,” said Lindsey.

Despite the free-scoring Reds’ prowess at the top end of the pitch, Lindsey’s men proved they could find that elusive, golden combination of getting it right at the back and to a man stood up to the visitors’ physical threat.

He said: “We’ve been good attacking-wise, we’ve scored a lot of goals, that’s 20 goals now in our last six games and this team will always score goals, in my opinion. We do need to be stingier at the back and I know I’ve sat here and said that before.

“Sutton put us under a lot of pressure by the way. Fantastic on set pieces, free kicks and throw ins - they put it right on you. So, the fact we’ve come away from the game today unscathed in terms of goals against, is really, really pleasing.”

A true test of Reds’ defensive capabilities lie on the horizon when 23-goal Wrexham visit Broadfield on Saturday 7 October, after a midweek trip to Doncaster.