Crawley Town's interim boss on Oldham win, Orsi and the two red cards
Crawley Town secured their second win of the season in a Halloween horror show for the Oldham fans, as they saw their team reduced to nine men before half time.
Danilo Orsi bundled home the winner on 52 minutes after Charlie Barker’s shot bounced down off the crossbar.
Speaking to Asa Finch after the match, Interim manager Kevin Blackwell was pleased with the way the team closed the game out. He said “I’ve got a good reputation for organising teams, and what I’m pleased with, we were doing free kicks and set plays, and we went through in the video room. We then came back on the training ground, and everyone remembered what they should be and where they should be.
“That’s important to me so that’s about experience and game management and the more we do that. I’ve asked the leaders to lead on the pitch, I’ve got the skipper, I’ve got Priestley at the back, I’ve got Orsi up top. I expect them to help the younger players, and so we give them a structure if they can stick to it and work to it and get better at it, then it makes us harder to beat.”
Blackwell had this to say about Orsi’s goal: "Strikers should know where they need to be and I’m looking for defenders and they should know where they should be in their own defending box, so Orsi’s in the right place at the right time, and that’s what you pay a striker for.”
Referee David Rock sent two Oldham players off for innocuous challenges, Kai Payne sent off in 14 minutes for a 50/50 challenge, and a high foot from Kane Drummond hit Kai Jennings in the head as he stooped for a header.
Blackwell said: “I didn’t see the second one, and I’ll be honest with you it happened so quick on the first one and I can honestly say I haven’t even seen it but I thought the second one when he tried to hook it and he didn’t see the player come from behind him, if that’s what I’ve seen, but once I get back on the bus and I’ve got some time to have a look at it.
“Look, the referee made that decision today, it’s gone for us but let me tell you there’ll be times in the season where we’ll get a red card and we think it’s harsh and it will go against us so you know when something goes for you, accept it.”
Despite having a two-man advantage for 50 minutes, Crawley were hanging on at times, as Oldham put on a resilient performance. Blackwell said: “They had big boys, I mean they had five over six foot two. I’ve only got Priestley who’s six foot two. We knew what the game wouldn’t be about playing, it’d be turning it and knocking it and that’s hard football sometimes to defend against.
“When we had the ball, and we kept it moving it around, we looked a decent side, and at the end of the day, I only get three points if we win 1-0 or 20-0 – we’ve got three points on the bus, say no more.”
Blackwell decided to change the formation on 38 minutes and bring Pemi Aderoju on for the booked Kai Jennings.
His reasoning: “Well, I didn’t want to. I didn’t think Orsi could get around the two centre-halves, and I knew they’d be knocking it long, so what I’ve done there is really just to put some more legs up there and like I say, we’ve got the results.”