Crawley Town boss gives an honest assessment of his side's display in Blackpool defeat

Niall Ennis scored a brace inside the first eighteen minutes before Kamari Doyle pulled one back on the half and hour mark.

Ashley Fletcher saw red for an off the ball incident with Charlie Barker only a couple of minutes after Doyle had halved the deficit.

Lee Evans wrapped the game up for the Seasiders in the closing stages from the penalty spot against the run of play to condemn Crawley to their 11th away league defeat of the season.

On the game Rob Elliot said: “Frustrating and disappointing. I think even before they went down to 10 men, we were second best, it was a really poor start from us.

“Obviously today we were second best pretty much all over.”

Ashley Fletcher’s red card at 2-1 provided an opportunity for the Reds to potentially seal at least a point but the away side struggled to break down the Seasiders defence.

The Crawley manger claims it was his side that were not good enough and that they have to accept it and move forward. He said: “We let ourselves down and when the ball did turn over, we just were not aggressive enough, they got out too quickly and they were able to counter, and we weren't able to lock them up.

“I think the lads would be disappointed there, they know that but sometimes you have to just hold your hands and say you weren’t good enough today.”

This defeat stops good run of form at home where the Reds had picked up crucial points in each of the last three games in their battle for survival in League One. Elliott said: “We didn't have that intensity to start with that we've had in previous games and that's got us through and got us good points.

“I think managing big moments, managing big crowds is something that we need to be better at if that makes sense because it was a good opportunity for us today off the back of a few good results.”

Crawley’s next game is on Saturday at home against fellow relegation rivals Cambridge.