'I nearly cried' - Crawley Town star on finding out strike partner might be leaving the club

Nichols was left out of Crawley’s most recent match day squad after the club received ‘strong interest’ for the striker from another team. “I was gutted when we first found out about it,” said Nadesan on the possibility of Nichols leaving the club. “I nearly cried.”

The partnership of Nadesan and Nichols has flourished in recent years. This season, the pair have contributed to a combined 22 goals in the league whilst out of current Crawley players, they occupy first and second top scorer positions.

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“Over the years he’s been a massive asset to the club,” added Nadesan. “He was unreal for the team and if he does go then, it’s a massive miss."

Nadesan is Crawley’s top scorer this season whilst Nichols, has the second most assists in the league. “It takes quite a while to get a relationship and a partnership over the years,” said Nadesan. "This year I feel like it’s worked extremely well and to see him go, it’s disappointing.

“But there’s other players like Remi (Aramide Oteh), Dom (Dom Telford) and myself will have to step up to the place. We’re going to have to feel the void of the goals and assists he’s given the club.”

After the news broke of interest for Nichols, rumours circulated of Bradford City wanting to sign the striker alongside Nadesan. However, the Telegraph and Argus have reported that the interest “has been dismissed by Valley Parade sources”.

“It's nice to hear that other clubs are interested but the focus is on Crawley, hopefully getting us out of the position that we’re in and pushing for the play-offs.”

Crawley Town are currently 19th in League Two with 21 points from their opening 20 games. They won their opening game under the management of Matthew Etherington last Saturday and the former Spurs, West Ham and Stoke City winger has since confirmed Nichols won’t be in the squad this weekend.

“Nico (Tom Nichols) is a very good player especially for this level,” said Etherington. “He’s going to be missed but luckily on my part, we have James Balagizi coming back which softens the blow a little bit.

“He won’t be involved on Friday but it’s an on-going situation. Sometimes these things happen in football and you just have to move on. If this does eventually happen, I wish him nothing but the best. But I’m here to concentrate on making sure the players I do have are available and as good as they can be.”

Crawley will host Hartlepool this weekend who are bottom of the league whilst Etherington will be looking to win his second game as Reds manager.

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