'It's not something I had any intention to go into' - Crawley Town boss 'genuinely enjoying' management

After Saturday’s 1-0 win at Rotherham, Crawley moved out of the relegation zone and up to 20th in the table. A well-taken finish by Will Swan was all that separated the two sides and gave Elliot his third win as Crawley boss.

It has been just over a year since Elliot was named interim manager at Gateshead where he guided them to a sixth place finish before lifting the FA trophy at Wembley Stadium for the first time in the club’s history.

His performances earned him a permanent managerial position in June 2024 and then three months later he accepted the position of manager at League One Crawley Town.

Despite not having any intention off going into management after finishing his playing career, Elliot currently has a 47 percent win rate (as of 23rd November) and is cherishing his progress into this new adventure.

He said: “It's not something I had any intention to go into, I was a technical director, and with Mike [Williamson] leaving, we wanted to keep the continuality at Gateshead. That was a bit of a buzz and then the step up to League One, playing against teams that are tough, tactically and technically, trying to understand how we break them down, how we work, it takes longer to break teams down because they're more professional etc, playing against better players, but I'm enjoying it.

“I can honestly say the second half at Bristol and the first half today I genuinely enjoyed myself, I genuinely enjoyed myself because I could see the lads showcasing themselves but in the way we've asked them to.The second half is just in the conditions, it's horrendous and I think that showed a different side to this team and I'm more proud about how we got through the second half and still caused problems because of the directness and the conditions.”

Elliot’s new adventure into management has brought him many challenges but is utilising his experiences as a player to get him through it.

“It's tough, it's different, I'm very open to the fact that I'm inexperienced in terms of managerial stuff, I just have to rely on my career and the experience I had at all the different levels to try and solidify my beliefs and make sure that I don't come away from them too far because what brings success is consistency and understanding strengths.

“The strengths of this team is that we're a fantastic in possession team who are now becoming good out of possession and we need to make sure we maintain both of those.”

He was also asked, if he could manage any team in the world, who would it be, to which he replied with…

“That's a good question, do you know what, I genuinely don't even think like that, I'm not just saying it, I genuinely don't because I enjoy the journey here, this isn't a managerial job, it's a project with the club and everything we're doing.

“I'm enjoying the challenge, it's stressful don't get me wrong, it's been six, seven weeks now so it's really stressful but it's an enjoyable stressful, I'm enjoying working with people and I'm enjoying the ups and the downs because I've got to learn, people have got to learn about me, I've got to learn about other people, I've got to learn about players, staff and everything and all I can say is I'm just thankful to everyone at the club from the very top to the bottom in bringing us here but also in trusting what we're trying to do and having that patience to get us to that point.”