Crawley Town are in the 'process of starting something very special', says Colin Kazim-Richards after York City win

Goals from Gianmarco Di Biase and Danilo Orsi saw Reds progress to first round of the Carabao Cup where they will face Watford on Saturday.

Nine of the 15 summer signings played a part in the win and Reds boss Kazim-Richards was left delighted with the performance and the result.

And with the likes of Jay Williams still getting back to full fitness, Orsdi coming off the bench to score and Osman Kamara impressing as substitute, the 39-year-old has a selection headache ahead of him – but that’s what he wants.

“That's the struggle that I want. I'd rather that struggle than the struggle of last season," he said. “That's the struggle I want, is having too many options.

“And then I have to really do my job of being able to pick a team that's going to win the game on the day. We're a squad, we're not just a team now, we're a squad and we've got a good squad. As long as we keep healthy and we keep working and we keep striving to be the best that we can be, I think we're in the process of starting something very special."

And a big part of building that squad was the element of character and mentality in the recruitment over the summer. “I think the characters and the mentality we brought in show we have big game players,” said Kazim-Richards. “It's not hidden. We were able to get a player that had won the league last season [Jude Arthurs]. That's a big game player. And then you've got already big game players that didn't have the best of season as a collective, but they are big game players.

"You see the energy when Jay [Williams] walks onto the pitch. The mentality that we have now is if we can carry on working, sticking together, no matter what happens, we play the way that we play.

"Mistakes are going to happen. It's a guarantee but we don't change the way we want to play. Yes, we have to do last-ditch defending and sometimes when we're last-ditch defending, it has to go. But other than that, we play the way we play. We are brave and we have character. And I thought we showed that today.”

And on the game, Kazim-Richards knew it was going to be a tough game, but he was happy how they won the game.

He said: “It’s tough place to come, they are a good team and were able to keep a lot of their team together from last season. They play a certain way, even though they've got a new manager, it's still the type of way that they're used to playing. So it's a championship-winning team in terms of the league that they were in before, so it's a good side.

“I am very happy, obviously I was able to get the win in a knockout tournament and in the process played some really, really good football.”