Crawley Town manager John Gregory: ‘We dropped two points’

He reckoned his side should have finished the game off with three points after having come back from behind to 1-1.

Gregory said: “I was obviously delighted to get something from it after a pretty abysmal first 45 minutes.

“They created a clear-cut opportunity when they scored but there was some poor play from us in the first half, we gave the ball away needlessly.

“They certainly weren’t the players that I know so well from Monday to Friday on the training ground and today was an extremely disappointing first 45 minutes.

“By their own admission, too many misplaced passes, too many players didn’t keep possession of the football well enough. Many, many wrong decisions made about when to pass, when not to pass.

“We were fortunate to go in just 1-0 down at half-time.

“We changed the formation and the shape in the second half which seemed to reinvigorate us. I fully expected us to go on and win it. We dominated play and it was literally one-way traffic.”

Gregory was expecting his team to add further goals after Izale McLeod drew them level with a 68th minute goal.

He said: “At 1-1 it looked like there would only be one winner. Crewe were ready to go home at 4.30pm but we didn’t continue to punish the opposition. We should have taken the three points.

“We certainly looked more effective in the second half playing in that shape.

“Crewe were out of it and were ready to go home with a point at 4.30pm. I consider that was two points we have dropped. We didn’t punish the opposition in the manner we should have done.

“Part of me thinks that Matty (Harrold) and Izale (McLeod) can’t play together. We tried it against Rochdale with disastrous effect.

“I leave the ground tonight exceptionally frustrated. For all the possession we did have in the second half we still haven’t won the match.

“I’m not very happy tonight. I’ll take tomorrow off and think about lots of things.”