'It’s no good being the side on top at half-time, you want to be the side on top afterwards' - Crawley Town head coach on defeat at Morecambe

Crawley coach John Yems gave his thoughts as his side fell to a 3-1 defeat at the Mazuma Stadium.

Cole Stockton provided the opener for the Shrimps, and the Reds levelled when Ashley Nadesan followed in Jordan Maguire-Drew’s shot.

A second-half brace from Carlos Mendes-Gomes sealed the three points for promotion hopefuls Morecambe, as the Reds left Lancashire empty-handed.

Despite the league position of Morecambe, who are in the playoff places, manager John Yems was disappointed to not come away with a result at the Mazuma Stadium.

He said: "We had our chances and we never took them, they had their chances and they took theirs.

"I thought it was an open game of football, two different styles obviously, and we’ve just got to get on the horse and go again, and I know I keep saying it but we’ve got a game on Saturday, we tried our best tonight, but in the second-half I thought we were half a yard off of it.

"Credit to them, they played the way that they play, lumping it up to the big fella and he’s done very well for them.

“It’s no good being the side on top at half-time, you want to be the side on top afterwards.

"It’s the story of our season a little bit. It’s where we’re still learning, you can make all of the excuses under the sun but when you pick the paper up tomorrow, we got beat 3-1. Did they deserve to win? Of course they did, they got three, we got one."

Crawley showed promise in their attack, but weren’t able to build on Nadesan’s equaliser, something Yems wants to work on: “Hell of a lot of promise, but we’ve got to add end product. Yes, I keep saying it, it’s a funny season for everybody, we’re getting players on who haven’t been fit and are trying.

"You come up against a hard side like they’ve got here then you’ve got to be on your game for 90 minutes, not 45. And that’s something we’ve got to learn, you can’t come away and beat yourself up too much, because we had a go, but in both boxes we’ve got to be a bit better than what we have been."

Crawley have the chance to put things right when they face Tranmere Rovers at Prenton Park this Saturday.

Crawley Town head coach John Yems on keeping Tom Nichols on penalty taking duties - Morecambe 3, Crawley Town 1: Nadesan goal not enough for Reds as Shrimps claim all three points - It might have been a whitewash but Crawley Town at least deserve credit for their determination at Morecambe - opinion