'I will treat this job as if I'm going to be here for 100 years' - Crawley Town interim boss makes intentions clear

The former Leeds United boss has taken temporary charge at the Broadfield Stadium following the departure of Colin Kazim-Richards with Reds at the bottom of the League Two table.

When Blackwell was asked whether being here on an interim basis changes the way he approaches the job and the way he acts upon the processes than if he was at the Reds on a permanent basis he said: “I will treat this job as if I'm going to be here for 100 years. I have a pride that I want to do well at every club I've ever been at.

£So, and this is no different and I've told the players for as long as I'm here, this is what we do, and this is how we do it. I'm the boss here, and they've been brilliant about it. And I shall keep working like that.”

The very experienced manager takes charge of his second game as interim boss when the Reds travel to Oldham Athletic. Having only had two days to work with the players before last weekend’s game against Tranmere Rovers and heavily relying on fellow staff members for his team selection, Blackwell enters this weekend’s fixture with a full week’s training under his belt.

With this full week, the 67-year-old has had the opportunity to make assumptions on players. “Yeah, without doubt. The longer you work with people, the better you understand them, and I certainly understand the players much more as of today than I did last Thursday when I just arrived,” he said.”

The former assistant to Neil Warnock gave an update on his assistant manager Jordan Tait who was due to be joining the team this week.

On that he said, “well, there is news on that. Unfortunately, Jordan won't be joining us, and he had unfortunate news within this family. He's had to go back, and it looks as though he won't be joining us certainly in the immediate future. So unfortunately, you know, family comes first, and it was a serious situation. So we just wish him all the best in his family”.

And there was an update from the club confirming that Tait will no longer be joining the Reds.

Josh Flint re-signed for the club on Wednesday having completed all his rehabilitation with the club over the summer and now ready to feature for the Reds for the first time since mid-February and Blackwell gave his first impressions of the centre-back. “Well, he looks a good pro to me,” said Blackwell. “He looks like he's of a good level. He's been unfortunate with injuries, I think. And so when I turned up, he was training here, and we've really turned that into a contract.

“Hopefully, he can give us a little bit more quality, a little bit more experience because we are such a young squad, and when you look at the depth of the bench, there's hardly any games being played by the lads, and it makes it difficult for them. So he gives us that little bit more experience, a little bit more strength, and a little bit more nails.”

Blackwell made it clear that despite the Latics position in the table there should be no expectations for three points. He exclaimed, “I think that's an absolute insult to Oldham Athletic. To anybody who can think that we're going to turn up and take three points. I mean, that's what we're going to try and do. But anybody who talks before the game and says, ‘Well, you know that's a game we’ll take three points’, that's absolute utter rubbish.

“We've got to earn the right to go to Oldham. I've never known a game at Oldham being easy, you know what I mean. And I'm going back to when they were in the Premier League and you know and a Championship, which they were for years, and Andy Ritchie was there managing, and it's a tough place. If the wind is blowing and the rain is dropping, it is not a place to be. It's a difficult place. So I've no illusions whatsoever.

"This can be a tough game for us. And as I said, we've been working very hard to hopefully try and get something from the game.”