'Miles off' - Crawley Town boss says his side learned nothing from first game with Bromley after second defeat in less than a month

Michael Cheek gave the visitors the lead on 14 minutes before Charlie Barker equalised with a header just before the break. But in a repeat of the game earlier in the month, Crawley capitulated and Cheek completed his hat-trick and send his side top of the League Two table.

The defeat means Crawley are winless in eight and are just two points off bottom spot going into the second half of the season.

And Lindsey was visibly disappointed and upset with what transpired at the Broadfield Stadium. “We were second best all over the pitch, really, in many aspects and against a really strong Bromley team,” he said.

"They're very good at what they do. Unfortunately, we weren't very good at what we did tonight and we fell short in many facets of the game today. I’m just disappointed with the outcome of that game.”

The win meant Bromley now top the table and they showed why with another ruthless performance against the Reds.

But Lindsey thinks Crawley helped them looked good and believes his players learned nothing from the first game against Andy Woodman’s side. “I think we added to Bromley being good,” he said. “It seemed to me as if we didn't learn anything from the first game, which I did.

"We went through clips and we went through actions and we went through loads of detail and it didn't seem as if it didn't sink in because we looked like we didn't learn anything from that game. It was almost carbon copy of the first game, probably worse actually.

“At least in the first game we looked something like in the first half tonight, I didn't think we looked anything like in both halves.”

After impressive and promising performances against Swindon and and Colchester in the previous games, Lindsey was asked why performance levels differ from game to game. He said: “I can put it down to one thing in my opinion. We're just at the moment lacking a lot of confidence, which sometimes doesn't make sense to me based on the fact that we are where we are, right?

"I understand it in a way, but I also think that it's the same set of lads that set about Swindon Town away from home the other week and was outstanding. We're so up and down with our performances at the moment, where one minute we're unbelievable and the next minute we're unbelievably poor. So, the confidence within the group needs to change quickly and I'm really disappointed with that tonight, I thought that was not very good.”

lindsey also question Bromley’s second goal, but did not use that as an excuse as to why they lost and questioned his players after that goal went in. “I think the second goal for theirs is offside, Cheek’s offside. It doesn't go straight to him, it's kind of the second phase of that. He ends up being in a position he wouldn't be in if he was onside. But listen, I'm not making excuses, we were miles off tonight and the second goal is the second goal, it is what it is.

“What I can't have is players looking like we're beating at that moment, there's still a long way to go. I've just said to the players, listen, it wasn't very good tonight, we've got another game in three days' time and I'm not going to give in because that's not how I'm built and I don't expect them to either. So, we pick ourselves up and we probably have to draw a line under this game tonight.”

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