Crawley Town reveals tactical change that help his side beat AFC Wimbledon after 'outstanding' second half performance

After a goalless 78 minutes, top scorer Orsi popped up to claim a second consecutive win and clean sheet when he scored from close range after Will Wright’s long throw was flicked on.

Reds’ defence were under a lot of pressure in the first half with the Dons put ting a lot of balls forward.

But a tweak to tactics in the second half saw Scott Lindsey’s men dominate – and he was delighted with the performance.

"I thought we were outstanding in the second half,” he said. “It was a difficult game, certainly in the first half, they put a lot of balls forward.

“We changed at half-time, changed the way we pressed and got more pressure on the ball which allowed them to kick their balls forward from a deeper position which made it easier for us to defend against.

In the first half we were allowing them to come to the halfway line and stick balls on us.

“Because we had what we call a +1 in defence with Dion we felt we could cope with that but it was apparent we were struggling with it because they had some strong boys up front.

“We wanted to put more pressure on the ball higher up the pitch. We did it in the second half and it limited them to sticking balls where we defended them higher up the pitch.

“In the second half we controlled the ball and I thought we were outstanding with the ball. There were some brilliant performances tonight.”

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Even though Reds dominated and controlled the ball, chances were still hard to come by but Lindsey had no doubt they would get a chance to score.

"Our XG would have been reasonably low tonight but I felt we would get chances. [Klaidi] Lolos had a couple of flashes on the edge of the box but I always felt we would score even though it wasn’t game a game of loads of chances for us but because we were dominant with the ball, I did feel we would create something that would win us the game.”

And following up Saturday’s clean sheet against Forest Green with another at the Cherry Red Records Stadium was a huge plus for Lindsey. He said: “The biggest thing for me from a coaching point of view is a clean sheet - apart from the win obviously - the clean sheet is something I talk about every second of every day at the training ground. I talk about being better defensively, spotting danger, tracking, blocking and doing all the horrible things in football we have to do to be better and and I thought we did it brilliantly tonight.”

529 Reds fans made the short trip to South London and Lindsey couldn’t help but smile when we asked him about them and his celebrations with them after the final whistle. “It was unbelievable at the end. There were great scenes and it reminded me of last season. Obviously that was a big win for us and we have done it again.

“The fans were class. From before minute one when I walked out before kick off and applauded them, they were brilliant, so good.”

Reds are now just two points off the play-offs thanks to picking up seven points from the last three games. “We are in a good place now after a run of poor results,” he said. “A draw and two wins so I am really pleased with the last three games. We are delighted but we know there’s still a long way to go.”

Crawley travel to Accrington Stanley on Saturday.