'I have been here before' - Interim Crawley Town boss makes Bristol Rovers comparison after two red cards in Oldham game
Crawley Town interim boss Kevin Blackwell told his players ‘we win this game whatever we do’ after Oldham Athletic had two players sent off.
Reds won the game thanks to Danilo Orsi’s 52nd minute goal and managed to claim just their second win of the season.
It wasn’t pretty but that didn’t matter to anyone at the club as they picked up the three vital points.
The Latics were down to nine men by half time when Kai Payne and Kane Drummond were dismissed.
But Blackwell knew it wasn’t going to be easy playing against nine-men for an hour despite the numerical advantage.
"I've been here before I went down to Bristol Rovers on Boxing Day with Luton and we ended up with eight men,” he said. “We come in at half time down to nine men and I said to Springy and the boys listen stay together in shape and we'll go for a set play. That's exactly what happened.
“We drew 1-1 and we got a standing ovation from the Bristol Rovers fans when we came off. I didn't want that to be the case for Oldham and I said to the boys I know what it meant so I don't want there to be any standing ovation from Oldham fans at the end of this game.
"We win this game whatever we do and I want them to move the ball a little bit quicker across the pitch that's really the key for it and the goal came that way.”
And Blackwell was said he was ‘proud’ how they got the three points.
"We've come away from Crawley with one point, that's the minimum we're going to come away with and then we'll try and take three from there. I was pleased with the way we started,” he said.
“11 v 11 we were on top and I think at that time and then obviously the send-off changed the total nature of the game but proud of the way they delivered the three points and that's what you do when you get on that bus and you leave Crawley, it's about coming back with something and we've got more than that so I am pretty pleased.”