'Strong reaction' - Crawley Town boss makes demand of players ahead of Colchester United trip

The Reds travel to the JobServe Community Stadium on the back of a promising performance at the Broadfield Stadium in which they drew 2-2 with the Robins last week.

It was one of their most complete displays of the season, with Lindsey’s team battling back from a stoppage-time goal to find the net late on themselves – a quality the Reds’ boss wants to take into the run-in.

He said: “If we go two-one down, I can't be seeing bad body language or rounded shoulders and heads dropped. That can't happen at this stage of the season - we've got to keep going, and I thought the players did that fantastically well on Saturday.

“They have done it in in past games as well, so we need to see that because the message from me is we're not always going to get it our own way.”

He added: “Obviously, every game is different. It's virtually impossible to mirror, but all I want to see is a team that are willing to fight for one another and fight for the cause. We know that we're still in it and I want to see that aggression to get us out of it.

“That's the most important thing for me. Tactics, team shapes, formations, detail in the way we play goes out the window a little bit now. I want to see a team willing to work so hard and run and if we have that about us, then it gives us a platform to win a game. I still think that we play our football anyway. It's not like I've got to coach the team how to play - they know how to play.

“The main thing for me is to is to make sure every single player is on it. We can't have any passengers - it's too late in the season now, and my focus has been on that and every conversation we’ve had has been on that side. So, I'm hopeful that we see a strong reaction from what was a good performance on Saturday.”

Despite being 21st in League Two, the Reds have secured results against many of the higher-placed teams – a feat they will attempt to replicate against play-off hopefuls Colchester.

Lindsey said: “I think the reality is that the league's really open, and you say that we play well against the good teams but they're all good. They're all really difficult. We've gone to some tough places and not performed well. We've gone to some tough places and performed really well, and sometimes we've not got what we've probably deserved.

“And there's times when we've got exactly what we've deserved. So, it's a tough league and anybody can beat anybody. You see it up and down the country all the time and we’ve got to make sure in these next 10 games that we're really up for it, present, ready to graft, ready to run.”

The Reds have a quick turnaround after Friday’s encounter with the U’s as they host Barnet on Tuesday night.