EFL Trophy penalty win against Portsmouth and point at Salford City could point to Crawley Town turning a corner

Now all we have to do, is turn it.

Of course, I am only going on watching the home game and following on Ifollow the away game. However, if we had been level with Salford on points and held them to a draw at their place, I would have said that was a good point too.

Surely that makes Saturday’s result even better. Yes, we need a win but let’s look at what we have achieved so far in all matches.

L, W, L, D, L, L, W, D, W/D, D

I know what people will be saying “There goes Steve, putting on his red tinted specs again”, but I have to say I would rather wear those than look at games through the bottom of beer bottles (only joking).

Encouragement to achieve is the best form of support you can give people, if you want them to be motivated to improve.

Our squad is full of impressionable young players, who no doubt are more social media aware than a geriatric supporter like me.

So next time you want to bemoan their ability, why not do it in a positive manner, rather than a negative one. Speaking as a retired teacher, I know that approach works, and I’m pretty sure it would also work in the football environment.

Going back to the Salford game, a cracking goal by Super Tommy Nichols and a scrambled effort by Ludwig earned us a valuable point against a team that hadn’t conceded at home and, were in fact, looking for their fourth straight home win.

So, how then can our result against them be seen as two points lost, rather than one gained.

Forget the “start with a point, finish with at least a point” philosophy. Both teams start with 0 points. meaning you can only gain points in any game by drawing or winning.

I do accept that it can feel like you’ve dropped points, but when you’ve come from behind, not once, but twice, how can that be anything other than gaining a point.

Looking back even further to the Portsmouth game, I watched from the West Stand for once and was pleased with the commitment and attitude shown by all our players with James Tilley, for me, putting in a match winning display, despite missing his penalty in the shoot-out.

James won both of the penalties in normal time, neither of which appeared to be controversial as attested to by the Pompey media. I also think that David Bremang, David Robson and Rafiq Khaleel deserve special mention, Bremang for taking and scoring two penalties, Robson for saving Freeman’s attempt and cool as ice Rafiq for slotting home the winning kick.

Will we actually qualify for the knockout stages of the Papa Johns?

I hope so, and we as fans can help us achieve that goal by turning up at Plough Lane on the 20th for the Wimbledon game and getting behind our team, after, of course, getting behind them in the three league games that come first.

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