Crawley Town boss has this message for supporters after missile and flare throwing incidents against Tranmere Rovers

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Crawley Town boss Scott Lindsey has had his say on the incident which led to the club having to apologise to Tranmere Rovers on Saturday.

The club apologised to their visitors and their goalkeeper Luke McGee after he had missiles thrown him after Ronan Darcy equalised in Saturday’s League Two clash at the Broadfield Stadium.

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In a statement, the club said anyone found to have thrown a missile would be indefinitely banned from the ground – and claimed the incident could have led to the game being abandoned. They said there was now the possibility the club could face a fine, a points deduction or even a stadium closure.

In the statement they said: “The club have already launched an internal investigation and anyone found to be throwing missiles of any kind onto the field of play will be indefinitely banned from the Broadfield Stadium and may face wider football bans.”

Crawley Town boss Scott Lindsey said the fans create a great atmosphere without the flares and throwing things. Picture: Eva Gilbert/SussexWorldCrawley Town boss Scott Lindsey said the fans create a great atmosphere without the flares and throwing things. Picture: Eva Gilbert/SussexWorld
Crawley Town boss Scott Lindsey said the fans create a great atmosphere without the flares and throwing things. Picture: Eva Gilbert/SussexWorld

The incident also led to the club’s safety officer Chris Baker putting out a message to the fans through the club’s website where said he was ‘not willing to tolerate’ what he saw and called the incident ‘frankly embarrassing’.

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The events marred another brilliant day for Lindsey and his team, who picked up another three points and now sit sixth in the League Two table. Lindsey has always praised the fans but now has called for those responsible to be ‘sensible’ and not disrupt the flow of the team.

"We always want a real good atmosphere and I think they bring that anyway without the flares and throwing things at the goalkeeper,” he said. “We don’t need to do that to create an atmosphere at our ground.

"When we scored and the flare came on the pitch, from a football point of view, we didn’t want the game to be slowed down, we wanted to kick off straight away because we thought we had them at that moment.

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“The fact the flare came on the pitch killed that momentum. I don’t want to hammer the fans because they have been brilliant but I do think we have to be sensible and I want them to realise they don’t need to do things like that for the atmosphere to be there. We already have a brilliant atmosphere.

“Especially with the way we play, we don’t want a break in play, we want the game to flow really quickly.”

Lindsey also asked fans to be patient with the way they are playing. Lindsey said he heard grumbles when they were searching for a winner about kicking the ball long. Eventually, Reds’ style of play led to Klaidi Lolos scoring an injury time winner.

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Lindsey said: “We were patient. There’s going to be times, especially at our place, teams are going to come here and bank up and sit in because we are going to be dominant with the ball. All I will ask is for fans to be patient with the players. They have to be as patient as the players.

“There is going to be times where it doesn’t work and you are not going to win through playing like that but we are not going to change, we will carry on doing what we are doing.”

Reds are away at Grimsby Town this Saturday.