Crawley Town have good 'momentum' going into Rotherham United game, says Rob Elliot

The Reds earned a hard-fought 0-0 draw away to Bristol Rovers last week, with Elliot’s team coming through a difficult start to having dominated at the end.

This was another important point for Crawley, who have now kept two clean sheets in the last three league games and have only lost two of their last seven matches in all competitions.

This shows that the Reds are moving in the right direction, and Elliot will hope his club will continue their good form with a home tie against Rotherham, a team who finished bottom of the championship last season and have not had the easiest start to the season, with The Millers lying 17th and only winning one of their previous five games.

On the fixture, Elliot said: “Another good challenge for us, Rotherham are a very good team, very direct, very good in terms of balls in the box, and their league position doesn’t show how well they’ve played this year.

“We know it is going to be a really tough game but one we are looking forward to. We’ve built a little bit of momentum, solid over the last few games, it’s just another game to attack and make sure we keep moving forward, keep progressing, keep the process going and also looking forward to playing at home.”

Bristol Rovers is always a tough place to go to, but Crawley kept up their impressive recent form to display an impressive second half performance in which they were unlucky not to come away with three points.

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Elliot will hope that his team can take this momentum from that second half into the game on Saturday, as he said: “We did the review, the chances we gave up in the first 10-15 minutes were all we were doing, with us probably not being as switched on, and fair play to Bristol Rovers because they started well.

“But once we got through that, we controlled the game, we dominated and just wanted to push on and get the goal. Done a bit of work this week on getting the ball in the box, final third entries etc.

“It’s really pleasing because the thing you're asking the lads to do is starting to come to fruition, but we still need to keep at it.”

This previous week has also been the first in a while that Crawley have completely off, with no midweek games. This gives the players a chance to rest up and recover from injuries and knocks but gives the coaching staff a challenge between recovery and training.

Elliot said: “It’s the balance between rest and recovery and training. We had a real hard session on Tuesday which was good, will have more of a tactical day today, then a build up towards the game on Saturday.

“It’s just about getting the balance right because we are thin, and there are players playing with knocks and injuries but that’s the situation we are in, where we can only just name a squad every week.

“We just need to look after the players but also make sure they are as prepared as they can be, but full credit to the lads, they’ve been incredible, they’ve just got on with it, and hopefully we will in the next couple of weeks players coming back from injuries, and hopefully that helps the squad going forward.”

With the festive period coming close, that only means one thing in football: lots of games. This will be something that Elliot would like to go into with good momentum, but also a fully fit and prepped squad.

“You don’t want to think too far ahead, but this is probably the first Saturday-Saturday before we get into the nitty gritty of the Christmas period, which we’ve seemed to be punished for being on Sky, to playing the 23rd at night to playing on the 26th.

“It’s frustrating because obviously doesn’t feel like we get the same amount of rest, but it is what it is. We just have to prepare the best we can.

“The one thing the lads have shown is their mentality and their desire and their togetherness, which I’ve been really pleased with, and we are going to need that even more going over the Christmas period.”

These fixtures would also give Crawley the chance to move up the table, as the Reds only lie 21st, but six points behind 13th, and four points behind Rotherham in 17th.

When told the stat, Elliot said: “That’s a nice positive spin on it. I don’t look at the league table too much, it’s still early doors – only a third of the season, but there’s loads of positives there and the big thing for me is that there is starting to be a bit of belief within the lads that they can affect the level. I think they’ve done it in patches and spells, but I think we are starting to believe that we can not only do it consistently but also to pick up the points needed against the bigger clubs. Never get too high, never get too low. Just focus on the next performance.”

It will be a return to Broadfield stadium for former Reds manager Steve Evans, who managed the club from 2007-2012, which included promotion back to the football league and a memorable FA Cup run in 2011.