'It's on the players' – Crawley Town striker takes accountability as Reds beaten at Accrington Stanley
Crawley Town goalscorer Danilo Orsi said the 3-2 defeat at Accrington Stanley on Saturday (September 5) was ‘on the players’.
The striker scored his first league goal of the season after 20 minutes to cancel out Charlie Caton’s fourth-minute opener.
But it was in vain as Caton and Devon Matthews put the game out of reach, with Pemi Aderoju bagging a late consolation.
Head coach Colin Kazim-Richards described the Reds’ slow starts at the Wham Stadium as ‘unacceptable’, and Orsi acknowledged that the players hadn’t delivered despite extensive preparation.
"It's on the players,” he said. “The gaffer and the staff gave us all the information we needed during the week, how to hurt them and what they're going to do to try and hurt us. And [in the] first 15 minutes of both halves, we didn't execute it at all.
“It's just really disappointing now. No one wants to come to Accrington away. Fans travelled up and there's 50 of them. Now we've got a six-hour journey back home with nothing to show for it.”
Having won just once from five games so far this season, the Reds have slipped to 21st in League Two and are at risk of being drawn into another battle for survival.
Orsi said: “We’ve got to start growing up, taking responsibility because today I had the opportunity to start and next week it may be someone else, but if you're on that pitch as one of the 11 representing Crawley Town, it's got to mean more – and that's the bottom line.”
The striker said the results were ‘putting more pressure on’ the team as the initial optimism during pre-season has begun to subside.
Saturday’s trip to Accrington was one of the Reds’ more winnable games on paper against a side towards the bottom of the table, and Orsi was frustrated that they had no answers for the hosts style of play.
He said: “They're going to turn us every opportunity they get. They're going to head it long, kick it long, get the ball in the final third, and then try to put crosses in the box. That's what they've done for years – it's nothing new.”
He added: “It's easy to play when you're two goals down. It's easy to have a bit of swagger about you to start flicking it around the corner because effectively you've lost the game at that point. So listen, we’ve got to dust ourselves down.”
After playing three games in eight days, the Reds now have a week to prepare for their next assignment – Cheltenham Town at the Broadfield Stadium on Saturday (September 12) at the earlier kick-off time of 12:30pm.
Orsi said: “I think it's good we've got a full week now. A full week where we go in Monday, get on the training ground and actually start to put things right and look ahead to the home game back at the Broadfield.
“Hopefully the fans come out, get behind us and we can start that game really positively, on the front foot, and hopefully kick on and show what type of side we are.”