'They turned it into an ugly game' - Crawley Town skipper's reaction to Gillingham draw

Crawley’s captain George Francomb has said their attack was ‘flat all round’ after only one shot on target in their 0-0 draw with Gillingham.
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“The forward boys would be the first to admit they were a little bit flat on Tuesday,” said Francomb, who started at right-back on Tuesday night. “They’ve already admitted that it wasn’t quite firing. The service might not have been great but that comes from everyone in the team. It was just flat all round in terms our forward play.”

Crawley’s interim manager, Lewis Young started an attack of Ashley Nadesan, Tom Nichols and Dom Telford for the third successive league game against the Gils. Despite their nine goals in 10 previous games, neither of the trio could significantly impact Gillingham’s Jake Turner in goal.

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The Reds returned home for their seventh league game under interim manager Lewis Young, where they’d picked up nine points in their previous three league games. “We went into the game thinking, right, let’s make it four wins in a row at home (in the league). But ultimately, there’s another team out there fighting for their lives. They (Gillingham) turned it onto an ugly game and flat stale mate in the end.”

George FrancombGeorge Francomb
George Francomb

Gillingham are 23rd in League Two and currently fighting to survive the drop under Neil Harris. After 19 games, they’ve only won two games and not scored since October in the division.

Crawley lost their five-game league unbeaten run in the previous loss to Walsall where defender Ludwig Francillitte was sent off. On coming up against Gillingham only three days later, Francomb said, “I think the boys were a bit tired after playing against 11 with only 10 men for most of the game on Saturday. A bit of that crept in.”

The Reds won’t play another game until December 3 against Swindon Town due to their absence from the FA Cup this weekend. On the opportunity for a chance to recover before the Christmas period, Francomb said, “To be honest I think it’s come at a good time. It gives us a chance to press a reset button. Since a change in manager and (Lewis) Young taking over, we’ve only lost won game in the league. I feel like, as much as we’re disappointed form Tuesday night against Gillingham, we’ve managed to get ourselves a little bit of breathing space from where we were left in.”

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Crawley were bottom of the league before Young took charge on October 9 but have recently risen to 19th with three wins and two draws from six games.

“I think the boys can be proud of their efforts to get where we are,” added Francomb. “So it's a good time to reset, come back fresh and ready to attack another block of games going into Christmas.”

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