Crawley Town squad starting to show belief in themselves, says Scott Lindsey

It comes after the Reds put in a determined display in front of the Sky Sports cameras to draw 2-2 at Gillingham last weekend.

Despite going behind twice, Lindsey’s side had the better chances and were unfortunate to not come away with the win. They still showed great character to equalise twice, and their boss wants his team to now kick on.

He said: “I felt that maybe we deserved more from the game on Saturday at Gillingham than we got. I made that clear after the game in the press. I felt that we deserved to win the game.

“We debriefed the game and went through lots of positive clips. We just reinforced what we’re doing, really – it was an easy meeting, in many ways, because we’re doing a lot right.

“Just to reinforce – keep going, keep believing. The results are starting to turn now, so we’ve just got to really kick forward now and use that as a vehicle to move us up the table.”

Thanks to their recent positive performances, Lindsey believes his squad’s belief has strengthened greatly.

“I think you can see the team really believe in themselves now,” he said. “I think, in training, just around the place in the building you can feel it. They really believe in it and believe in what they’re doing.

“So, pleasing from my point of view. I think that’s probably been my hardest challenge this season – to keep them believing in what we’re doing and that it is a process.

“Because when you’re in the bottom two and you’re trying to tell them keep going, we’re doing alright, we’re playing well – it's sometimes hard for you to keep that belief going.

“I’m pleased that they listened and I’m pleased that they have taken onboard that belief because now they’re showing, and I think the whole country saw it on Saturday, that we’re a good side.”

The Gillingham match being broadcast on Sky Sports meant that more people were exposed to Crawley’s brand of football, leading to Lindsey personally receiving many plaudits.

He admitted: “I got so many messages afterwards saying you look a really good team – you don’t deserve to be where you are.

“I’ve always known that, my staff have always known that – I think the players have, deep down, probably always known that. But hopefully now we’ll see us away from that bottom area of the division, so we’ve just got to really press forward.”

The draw with Gillingham saw some contentious decisions from the match officials and Lindsey was able to clarify some of them with Mike Jones - Head of Refereeing at the EFL.

He said: “I think we were up against a couple of bad decisions. A lot of Gillingham fans were talking about Bradley Dack’s header being offside.

“I spoke to Mike Jones – he said, technically it’s offside because the corner taker is the one who’s offside. He’s the one that they flagged, not Bradley Dack.

“It takes a touch – the first contact is actually a touch from a Gillingham player. We work on defending corners. We squeeze the line quite quickly so, as soon as the ball is in play we get up.

“We obviously were a bit aggrieved about the penalty decision for sure. I mentioned about the foul in the lead-up to the first goal on the corner. I felt it was a foul. They didn’t, but it is what it is.

“You could probably look at it as a good point away from home at Gillingham – a tough place to go. But I was disappointed to drop two.”

Crawley Town will hope to regain the winning thread back in front of their home supporters, where they have enjoyed recent success. A win will lift them from 20th place in League Two and above Accrington Stanley, who are currently a point above in 18th.