Steve Herbert: Bad start to the year for Rob Elliott’s Reds

A 3-0 defeat at Oakwell wasn't the ideal start to 2025. In fact the whole festive period has been pretty much been a disaster from start to finish. Home postponements against Stevenage and then Charlton on New Year's Day have led to the Reds playing catch up.

Crawley Town currently sit top of the relegation zone above Burton, Cambridge and Shrewsbury. But five points adrift of Bristol Rovers and Peterborough who are the nearest placed teams above. In reality we should of beaten both the Gas and the Posh. But our failure to convert chances in both those games has come back to haunt us big time. It means when we next take to the field on Saturday 18th January at home to Burton, we need to start winning games of football again in order to get ourselves out of the mess the team have put themselves in.

For an hour on Saturday in South Yorkshire, Crawley looked a shadow of the side that played so well at Charlton and during the first half at Exeter a week ago. The inability to defend and create was alarming, and manager Rob Elliott certainly identified this in his post match interview. Its clear in this two week break a lot of work needs to be done on the training ground and in shaping a squad to give us the best possible chance of survival. Rob has stated that he only wants players playing that are up for the fight of a relegation scrap. Something us supporters want to see. Although Rob and his coaches need to take a bit of responsibility as well here.

As on Saturday Panutche Camara was played out of position and was shown up on a number of occasions before he was moved back to his more natural position. Unfortunately by then the damage had been done. It was a long journey home for all involved from Oakwell on Saturday. A two week rest is most welcome now for both the team and us fans.