'If we can't wake up now, it will be too late' - Former Luton Town and Bradford City winger sends stark warning to Crawley Town teammates
Crawley Town winger Dion Pereira says his side need to wake up now or it could be too late after Reds slumped to a 2-0 defeat to Oldham Athletic.
Jack Stevens scored both goals for the Latics either side of half-time to condemn Scott Lindsey’s men to their 19th defeat of the season.
The loss leaves Reds six games without a win and in 21st place, still just one point off relegation, only a goal 13 minutes into added time for Gillingham against Barrow meant Reds did not drop to 22nd.
And Pereira, who came on as a sub in the defeat said they deserved to lose on the day. “I feel like we're just sloppy all over the field, second best to everything, and then we try and put our foot down in the second half, and it's too late by then, we're 2-0 down,” he said.
"We started off very slow, we're almost offering them chances, fair play to them, but they didn't have to do much to get in behind. Chappie (Jacob Chapman) has pulled off some worldie saves again, I don't know how many times we can keep relying on him, but he's keeping us in a lot of games and we just need to sort something out because it's getting ridiculous now.”
When asked if the performance was down to the players being anxious because of where they are in the league or a lack of confidence, Pereira said: “I think it's a bit of both. Lack of confidence obviously in set pieces, maybe stuff like that. But, confidence obviously. You can see from the sidelines, maybe even on the pitch, it's almost like we're waiting for their first goal to go in and then after that it's like, ‘here we go again’, do you know what I mean? Same story.
"Whereas the games that we have started off well, teams turn up expecting it to be easy and then we're like, ‘oh wow, Crawley turned up today and it's a test’, that's how it should be. It shouldn't be one way all the time and it just feels like that at the moment, which is disappointing.”
And with only 11 games left, the former Luton and Bradford City winger says it is time to wake up or it’s going to be too late. “I think, honestly, I think the [lack of confidence] shout, we have to just push that away,” he said.
"We have to do something, we can all see that. It's obvious. Like you said, we're not in the bottom two, but we're close to it. And if we can't wake up now, then before you know it, there's going to be one game left of the season and it's too late.
"Fortunately enough, teams around us haven't done great either, so it's literally up for grabs for anyone. But if we don't start waking up and grabbing it ourselves, someone else will and that's just the reality of relegation zone, promotion zone, everything. And I know as a team, we're too good to get relegated, but it's all good saying that. We actually have to act on it.