Four key things we learned from Kevin Blackwell’s first Crawley Town game
Kevin Blackwell’s first game in charge saw Crawley Town take a point from a 1-1 draw against Tranmere Rovers as Dylan Morgan’s wonder strike was cancelled out by Will Vaulks’ deflected shot.
Blackwell would have taken a lot from his side’s draw but here are four things we learnt from the Reds’ second point at home this season as they battled in the wind and the rain.
1 Improved defensive shape
The Reds looked a lot more resolute at the back against Tranmere. Crawley’s centre-backs Priestley Farquharson and Jonny Russell battled extremely hard against Joe Ironside, who Rovers targeted with the long ball, and, later in the game, David Kamara.
Crawley were able to keep structure to their defensive line – when faced with adversity and spells of pressure throughout the game, they were set up to defend much more resolutely. Blackwell’s reversion to the old school 4-4-2 ultimately made Crawley look much more assured from back to front.
2 Crawley have a real gem
Dylan Morgan scored for the fourth straight game in a row taking his total to five goals from nine league appearances. The attacker arrived in the summer from National League side Torquay United and has made an instant impact being a standout player in a struggling side.
He has some serious technical ability and all of his goals so far in a Crawley shirt have been ones for the showreel. His consistency in performances week in, week out has set the standard for his fellow teammates.
3 Blackwell’s wealth of experience
The former Leeds United boss has been in these situations before and managed a lot of different players with different personalities, and it was evident how he used his experience to set up the side – well drilled and structured.
Blackwell spoke of “passing his knowledge on to the players” and “how to improve them” – giving the example of Ade Adeyemo, knowing when to press and when to sit. Even in the short-term what Blackwell can pass onto players individually will be crucial.
4 Platform to build on
Naturally the players will be disappointed with a draw and despite it only being a point, there were plenty of positives to take from the game and Blackwell said this was a massive learning curve for himself.
He would have learnt a lot about the side from this first game in charge and he will be able to implement a lot more over this coming week.