Colin Kazim-Richards sees Crawley Town’s next EFL Cup challenge against Championship side Watford as an opportunity to ‘build off the foundations’ of their promising start to the season.

Kazim-Richards enjoyed the perfect first competitive game in charge as permanent head coach – a 2-0 win against former Reds boss Scott Lindsey’s York City in the EFL Cup preliminary round on Monday night (August 3).

And now the Reds travel to Vicarage Road this Saturday (August 8) at 3pm for the competition’s first round, buoyed by a positive pre-season.

The long journey back from York was made worthwhile for Kazim-Richards, who spent most of it preparing for this weekend.

Colin Kazim-Richards before the York City win. Photo: Kyle Hemsley

placeholder image — Colin Kazim-Richards before the York City win. Photo: Kyle Hemsley

He said: “I was able to get a lot of work done on the bus back, to be honest with you – go through things that we thought we could have been better with, could have done faster.

“We had some presentations and dissected the game on the bus. That's the good thing about having a journey like that, but then being able to get the reward and then going and playing against a team that's an established Championship side, that have some good talented players.

“But it's more about showing ourselves and building off the foundation that we've created for ourselves, not just going and being in a game like that and everyone be happy.

“We still need to go into this game and show and do the things that we know that we can do well and be better at the things that we know that we can be better at.”

The Reds have the advantage of playing a competitive game of football before most other teams in the English pyramid, but their boss doesn’t expect Alessio Dionisi's side to lack for sharpness.

"I expect them to come out and be at their 100%,” Kazim-Richards said. “That's what we're preparing for. Whether that happens is different, but that's what we're preparing for and that's what I am expecting.

“And then we can go out and we have to at least match that in terms of our physical output. But then we play our games, we stick to our ideas and our principles, and we play the way that we feel we should play, and we believe that we're very good at playing.

“We'll then have another opportunity to go and prove that to ourselves because every time you do that, you just get a little bit more of an ego towards it. I call it a footballing ego – a good footballing ego in terms of the way we want to play, so when we'll be able to do that again on Saturday, it will be top.”

The Reds boss appreciated the fans who made the long journey up to York, even posting a picture of the away end on Instagram.

Kazim-Richards said: “Now, being able to have a shorter trip to a stadium that they definitely wouldn't have normally got to go to this season – it's top to be able to sell 700 tickets already. And there will probably be some more by the time Saturday comes around.

“And them being able to see the team perform at a certain level will be good. We'll go there and we'll definitely, 100%, have our foot forward trying to progress.”