Crawley Town boss reveals thinking behind bold corner tactic

The move has become a fixture of the Reds’ set-piece defence, with three players occupying the halfway line and leaving the opposition with a decision to make.

It has often led to teams keeping three men back to mark each danger or sending another forward to try and capitalise on the space left on the edge of the Crawley box, leaving themselves vulnerable to potential counter attacks.

Lindsey said: “I think what we're trying to achieve is conceding less goals. I did it once when I was at Forest Green as a coach. I remember doing it at Chesterfield away, but I think we had four up the pitch and it worked.

“I think we did it a few games after that and Erdem actually mentioned it to me and I thought: ‘Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.’ If you keep three up the pitch, sometimes they go brave and keep two up the pitch. Then you're not a man down because they’ve got a corner taker, but it’s a bit cat-and-mouse.”

The Reds’ boss explained when his side re-introduced the tactic this campaign.

He said: “The first game we did it was [at] Barrow away, and I remember (David) Worrall – a coach at Barrow – shouting: ‘Oh, cat-and-mouse. Go and get the ball.’ I said: ‘We're only playing cat today. We're not playing the mouse bit, we’re staying’.

“It's important that we stay strong and stay up the pitch because all it takes is [for] us to defend that action and then we've got the overload at the top of the pitch or for (Jacob) Chapman to catch the ball and boot it up the pitch and we’re at them.

“In actual fact we like it when they play short. If they play short, it means that there's less threat in the box. As well with the numbers up the pitch, there’s less bodies in the box. There's more room in the box to go and head it.”

The set-up has been relatively successful with the Reds shipping less goals in general and keeping five clean sheets in 12 games.

“Listen, touch wood, we've not conceded since we've been doing it,” Lindsey said. “We've been doing it [for] a few games now, and there hasn't been many teams who have had an answer for it.

“I think probably Colchester got the closest where they fashioned a little short one and nearly got in. Jay (Williams) is always the spare man, and he reads it quite well. He knows what's going on.

“We've done it in that way where we have our intelligent players as it were in terms of Jay. He understands it as the spare man because he knows that if they come short, he's the one that's going to deal with it and he's quite good at blocking and stopping two players. It's worked for us.”

Crawley are back in League Two action this Saturday when they face Fleetwood Town at the Highbury Stadium.

With eight games remaining this season, a result will be crucial in aiding the Reds’ relegation fears as they hover precariously above the bottom-two in 21st place.