Crawley Town boss says disastrous start against Huddersfield Town was 'horrendous and not acceptable'

Elliot’s side had a shocking start, conceding four goals in the first 28 minutes, with the home side hardly having to break sweat.

The Terriers took their foot off the gas in the second half but went 5-0 up through Moan of the Match Ruben Roosken before Reds sub Ade Adeyemo scored a brilliant consolation with the last kick of the game.

The defeat leaves Elliot’s men 12 points from safety with just nine games left.

“It was really poor,” said Elliot. “The start was horrendous and not acceptable. We’ve talked about being solid the last few games in terms of managing the game. We didn’t know what Huddersfield were going to do today in terms of shape but it doesn’t change our concepts.

"But we weren’t able to deal with the game and ended up 4-0 down and they were four really poor goals and that’s been the issue with us, we concede too many goals. I know that’s obvious to say. There were brilliant bits of play from Huddersfield today but the goals were poor from us and you can’t give goals away like that at this level.

"Just completely not acceptable the first 20 minutes and it doesn't really matter what happens in the rest of the game because the game's gone by then.”

This was Jon Worthington’s first game in charge of the Terriers and changed the way they played. Before today’s game, they had not scored at the John Smith’s Stadium since Boxing Day. But Elliot said it had nothing to do with the way they played. He said: "It's got nothing to do with Huddersfield. I think it's just a case of our mentality in terms of attacking games. Too many times we allow the game to bypass us before we start playing and we don't deal with the occasions, we don't deal with the atmosphere, whatever it may be. And that's the problem. We need a shock into our system most of the time and you can't do that at this level, you can't do that at any level, but especially at this level in the situation we're in.

"So, it's just really disappointing that despite the results against Reading and Charlton, there was a bit of grittiness about us and a bit of determination to be more rugged and to be able to see the game through in that sense. We didn't have that today.”

Reds are back in action on Saturday when they host Bristol Rovers, who lost 5-0 at at Lincoln today, at the Broadfield Stadium.