Crawley Town super-sub reveals what Scott Lindsey said to him before he went on to score equaliser against Doncaster Rovers

The youngster spoke about the significance of the moment and the feeling of having the fans cheer after his equaliser. “It makes it ten times better obviously the roar when I scored, especially with it being my first goal. So yeah I was over the moon,” he said. You can read the match report here.

After his equaliser, Crawley continued to apply pressure on the Doncaster backline getting close to a winner on a couple occasions and even scoring an offside goal with Ashley Nadesan. Rafiq felt that with the way his side were playing they were a few minutes away from a much-needed winner.

“I think if we had a little bit longer, we would have most likely got the goal. I thought Nadesan was on to be honest but the linesman said it was offside. Hopefully we can build on that and hopefully win on Saturday.”

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Scott Lindsey has spoken well of Rafiq in the past and gave him a start in his first game in charge of the team. When asked about what Lindsey said to him before he was subbed on, Rafiq explained the faith the manager has in him and the rest of the team.

“He just really told me to go do my thing really. I think obviously we all know our jobs individually and as a team, so there was not really much to say. I feel like he puts his trust into me”

The game was a good opportunity for Crawley to make some space between them and Hartlepool, with the feeling it maybe was a chance missed as they could not get the win despite a fairly positive performance. Rafiq explained that this does not change the pressure the players feel under at the moment and doubled down that the players are up to the challenge.

“Every single game from now until the end of the season, there’s going to be a bit more pressure than normal due to the position we’re in but you can see by the performances the lads don’t really take to pressure really so we’ll just move on and hopefully get 3 points on Saturday and go on a run”