'There's still belief' - Crawley Town defender says team will fight until final day

The 22-year-old defender was speaking after the 4-1 defeat to Lincoln City. Kamari Doyle gave Crawley the perfect start with a tap-in after good work from Will Swan and Charlie Barker.

But Lincoln dominated after that and goals from James Collins, Jovon Makama, Dom Jeffries and Joe Gardner gave the Imps on the second win in the last eight games.

The defeat leaves Crawley seven points from safety but the former Charlton defender says they are not giving up this fight.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a lack of belief,” said Barker. “We have a squad, a team and staff around it that believe and will believe until the last day. It’s just always tough when you are in the position you are in.

"The first goal goes in and then it’s backs against the wall. It’s tough to come back from. But I wouldn’t say lack of belief. We will keep fighting but the quality just wasn’t there.”

Reds have 12 games left to try and climb out of the relegation zone, starting this Saturday at home against Reading.

"There are 36 points still to play for,” said Barker. “If we get back-to-back wins in the next week everyone will forget about tonight and start looking upwards but until that win comes, it seems far away. If we go on a little run, anything is possible. Twelve games is a lot of football. There’s still a lot of belief in this group.

"This is our livelihoods, it’s not from a lack of trying. Everyone here wants to do well for ourselves, for our family, for the club. It must be tough for the fans and we feel for them, we appreciate them. It’s never going to be for a lack of trying, we give everything. We may have a lack of quality at times but noone wants to get out of this more than us.”

Just over 100 fans travelled to the LNER Stadium on Tuesday night and the club are expecting big crows for the two home games coming up against Reading and Charlton.

Barker said: “We are going to give everything to the final day so stick with us. We appreciate all the following you do. Get behind us Saturday and we’ll give everything again. These are big clubs coming to the Broadfield and if we give everything, it’s a tough place to come and we can definitely come away with something.”