Crawley Town still 'not getting the rub of the green', says Rob Elliot

Brilliant finishes from Rushian Hepburn-Murphy and Will Swan helped to put the Reds into a two-goal lead, but a deflected shot which landed at the feet of Josh Sheehan helped Bolton to equalise with five minutes of the 90 left to play.

New signing Rory Feely saw red after two yellow card offences before a cross deflected off Charlie Barker and looped over everyone into his own net completing Bolton’s comeback.

All seven goals took place in a manic second half where goals were flying in from both sides.

Rob Elliot gave his reaction to the second half. He said: “Second half I thought we started excellently and scored a good goal, but it was poor to concede straight after and we should do better in regard to stopping the cross. The reaction again is fantastic and then after that to go 2,3-1 up was brilliant and I’m obviously pleased for Rushian Hepburn-Murphy and Will Swan.

“We had real pace and threat in terms of transition and fantastic finishes and then you know obviously controversial for me, we’ve got a player down injured in the box and their allowed to take a quick free kick we are still not getting the rub of the green, but we should still switch on in those moments.”

Despite the shock of the comeback Elliot was positive in his reflection of the game although he did point the skill his team were lack. He said: “Where we need to get better is that understanding to control the game more when teams step on and to try to take momentum from a team by using the ball better, but we have a lot of young players who wouldn’t have been in this environment before in front of 20,000.

“The squad and players will be better for that long term but at the moment it hurts because we want to come away with something and the lads are giving me everything.”

The defeat to Bolton drops the Reds down a place into 23rd with a run of home fixtures coming up that become vital in order for survival in League One.

Elliot was looking forward to having the chance to show the home fans some good performances. He said: “All we can do is recover as best we can and assess on Monday and look at where we are at and where we could be better.

“We need to make sure we attack Stevenage in the right way as that’s all we can do and control. I’m looking forward to being at the Broadfield again because I think the momentum and support has been excellent and we need to make sure that we capitalise on that.”