Crawley Town head coach looking forward to ‘reset’ after EFL Trophy trip to MK Dons

Following the midweek clash in Buckinghamshire, the Reds will have an enforced 11-day break.

Crawley’s home League Two clash with top-of-the-table Barnet on Saturday, September 26 has been postponed due to international call-ups, meaning Kazim Richards’ troops won’t take to the field again until Saturday, October 3 at Walsall.

But the boss said the break will come at a ‘good time’ for the Reds, who sunk to the bottom of the League Two after a 2-0 defeat at Grimsby Town on Saturday.

Kazim-Richards said: “Right now, it's a good thing to get a reset. It's definitely a good thing to have this reset – come in, work on things, get the intensity where I would like it as well, and identify other things and work on that.

“I think it's coming at a good time, definitely. Normally, it's not. We've got some players that are going away on international duty as well.”

Tuesday’s opponents MK Dons sit third-from-bottom in League One having drawn six of their opening seven league games.

Kazim-Richards said the clash at Stadium MK would give Crawley’s fringe players a chance to ‘step forward’ – but the Reds were unable to make wholesale changes due to the EFL Trophy’s strict competition rules.

Each EFL club is obliged to start at least four outfield first-team players in the EFL Trophy.

A first-team player is defined by the EFL as someone who starts either of the matches directly before or after the EFL Trophy fixture in question; a player that has started 40 or more senior matches; or a player who has started at least the 10th-most matches for the club that season.

Any EFL club that fails to meet this requirement is fined up to £5,000.

The former Türkiye international added: “With Tuesday, there's a lot of politics and rules and stuff that you have to stick by. We'll see what that looks like on Tuesday.

“Then there's obviously chances now for people to step forward. That's what another game always does.”