Crawley Town boss praises mentality and character of players after EFL Trophy thriller

The Reds saw themselves 3-0 down just before the hour mark yet managed to draw the game level. As the game looked to head to penalties, Joe Piggot won it for Wimbledon. Despite this, Elliot, taking charge of his first home game, praised the character of his side.

“There were a lot of positives to take obviously clear things we need to fix as well, but over the last two games we’ve got to get a good idea of the squad and the team,” he said.

“Coming back from three goals down shows a lot of character. We just need to find our feet and understand that if we keep doing the right thing and stay consistent then really, we have a lot of ability and a lot of attacking options. Always positives to take and you have to look at this as a process.

"For me it’s about developing the players but also finding out how we’re going to get the best out of them, I want to see that free-flowing attacking football.”

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“We just need to get a bit leaner and an understanding of how we negate that poor start to the second half, I think that’s why you have to stay consistent in football, if you don’t stay consistent you lose the process of what you’re trying to do. It was an unbelievable reaction, and I thought there was only one team who could win it. We just need to learn and get better it’s quite a young squad and we just need to keep working at it.”

“They showed that mentality to carry on. At 3-0 down you’re having a tough night but I thought it got better as it went on.

"There are going to be mistakes and goals scored against you, but it was the mentality that I was pleased with tonight. It was frustrating and there are things we need to improve on but as long as the lads give me that mentality of trying to play forward, try do the right thing, try score goals then we can work on it.”

The manager was particularly full of praise for Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, who scored one goal and had a goal disallowed. “We started the second half really well, Rushian was excellent all night. He was the standout player in terms of energy and pace.”

Crawley are positioned third in their EFL trophy group, they next play in the competition away to Wycombe, a repeat of Elliot’s first game in charge.