Crawley Town defender Travis Johnson: Reds fuming after Leyton Orient loss

The Reds conceded the only goal of the match in the 50th minute when Tom James fired home a brilliant strike on the edge of the box.

An impressive defensive performance from the home side kept Leyton Orient at bay for the rest of the game, but going forward they simply couldn’t convert.

“It hurts,” said Johnson. “When you’ve nullified everything they have, and you concede in that manor.

“It’s not like they cut us open, they weren’t dominant, they weren’t tearing us apart. In the end it came down to a set piece and that’s what probably hurts the most.”

Crawley were desperate to win their first home game of the season after losing their League Two opener away to Carlisle last week.

Unfortunately, their narrow defeat means they are currently bottom of the table with zero points and zero goals.

“The main goal was the three points so we’re all fuming about that,” said Johnson. “There’s plenty more games to play but we need to be better than that.

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“We know we need to create more chances, speed things up and be more penetrative when attacking so that’s what we’ll be working on.”

Kevin Betsy, the club’s new manager for the season joined the club with a completely new style of play.

Rather than the traditional, direct approach the Reds previous manager John Yems played, possession and domination of the ball is now the main focus.

When asked about the implementation of Betsy’ new system, Johnson said: “We cut them open quite a few times when we moved the ball quickly. Our best chance of the match came from playing it out from the back after a goal kick.

“When we did get forward though, we didn’t keep our foot on the gas, and it slowed down. That’s when we really need to speed things up.

“It’s a new style and there’s a lot of new faces but if we stick with it, we’ll be fine.”

Crawley’s attention will now turn to Bristol Rovers who they face on Tuesday night in the EFL Cup.