Lindsey picks apart Bromley defeat with players – and set-piece defending is high on agenda
Scott Lindsey recognised his Crawley Town side have ‘no divine right’ to beat certain teams after their 3-1 defeat to Bromley on Tuesday night.
It was a frustrating evening for the Reds in which the game was turned on its head after a promising start that saw Ryan Loft put them ahead after nine minutes.
A goal at the end of a run of three successive corners sparked Bromley’s comeback just before half-time and the hosts were by far the better team in the second period.
Lindsey was frank in his assessment in where the Reds are in comparison to their midweek opponents.
“We’ve got to realise and recognise where we’re at and what we are,” he said. “We’ve got to realise we’ve got no divine right beating Bromley, by the way.
“I think the perception is that we should go there and beat them – why? Because we’re probably five years away from where they are in terms of a football club and that’s the truth.”
In a hectic lead-up to the festive season Crawley are back in action on Saturday against Oldham Athletic at Broadfield Stadium.
In preparation for that test, Lindsey and his squad have been busy analysing what went wrong at Bromley – in a valuable training session on Thursday morning.
“We debriefed it and we went through certain aspects of the game – the key moments of the game that we’ve got to improve on,” the boss said.
“A lot of players spoke in the meeting which is positive. It really feels that there’s a togetherness between us – our staff and the players.
“We’re in it together and we know what we’ve got to do. I liked the input from the players today. It was good, so we have to quickly move onto the next game and that’s what we’re doing.”
Lindsey had spoken immediately after the Bromley defeat about a less than satisfying training session that had occurred the day before and he sought to clarify those comments.
“On Monday, Harry McKirdy said: Sometimes you can not train well but play well, so let’s see. There’s been times when we’ve trained excellent and not played well. You have to take what happens in training with a pinch of salt sometimes.”
Bromley’s first goal was the most frustrating to the Reds’ manager because he had seen the scenario play out in training.
He said: “I felt that we didn't defend corners in the training session leading into the game very well. I showed them today (Thursday) - I went through the training footage where the first corner on our left (their right) was.
“It was slung in – the opposition scored in training. And then, lo and behold, we concede from that same position. So, we have to make sure that we train, practice what we do and practice it well.
“And I didn’t think we did that well enough certainly in the last game, in the build-up to the last game.”
After Tuesday’s game defender Geraldo Bajrami bemoaned the flurry of set-pieces that Crawley often find themselves forced to deal with.
When asked how his side can avoid those dangerous situations, Lindsey put it in simple terms: “Manage the game. 43 minutes - we're playing balls around the corner on the halfway line, what are we doing?
“On 43 minutes, there's no reason to play a ball around the corner on the halfway line with no pressure on you anyway. The players need to start to think about where we are in the game, managing moments in the game.
“Anything 40 minutes onwards we’ve got to do our job really, really well. And if it means spinning a few down the sides of them and getting the ball off us and getting us up the pitch and away from our goal, then so be it.”
Lindsey has relayed that sentiment to his players to avoid playing into future oppositions’ hands.
“These are the dicussions we’ve had today in the meeting,” he said. “It didn’t need to get to them (having) three corners is my point – we should have been better with the ball before them.
“And, of course, when you’re playing Bromley who, by the way, are probably the strongest team in terms of set pieces, to give them three corners in the 43rd minute it’s criminal, and then to defend them in the way we did is criminal too.
“I felt that first goal lost us the game. If you listen to Andy Woodman’s (Bromley manager) interview after the game, he spoke about that.”
Effective defending of set-pieces will likely be of high priority when the Reds welcome Oldham on Saturday. The encounter will be a serious test of the squad’s mettle after two successive defeats has left them just a point above the League Two relegation zone.
Lindsey will be looking to see the players translate their inputs at Thursday’s successful meeting into material outcome on the pitch at Broadfield Stadium to turn around their fortunes.