'Too nice' - Crawley Town boss gives honest assessment after his side's defeat to Morecambe

Despite taking an early lead, Crawley ended up losing the game as Gerard Garner scored twice for the Shrimps. Reflecting on the game, Scott Lindsey said his team were: “Too nice. We played a team who I think we should dominate, and we don’t ask questions of them.

“I think we had one shot on target all day, so we’re not aggressive enough in the final third.”

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On the contrary, Morecambe’s striker Garner was more than aggressive enough in the final third. The striker scored two goals and Lindsey recognised that he dominated his defence.

“Their number nine today, I thought he was their best player. I thought he bullied us.”

Talking about the second goal from Garner, Lindsey said: “It’s not acceptable at this level of football, for me. The second goal is one ball over the top, he’s in the corner not even in a dangerous position. Yet he’s managed to cut inside and shoot and shoot.

“Schoolboy like defending and too passive at the top of the pitch.”

Lindsey’s team did pass the ball well and dominated the possession for large spells of the game, but his team weren’t ruthless enough to create chances. “We build our possession from the back, but we don’t recognise when were through. We turn around sometimes and come back and let them off the hook,” he said. “That’s what I mean by being too nice.

“We should win that game today in my opinion, but we’re too passive and too nice. We don’t really attack the game to win it.

“I’m really disappointed.”

Crawley haven’t played a lot of football in the last few weeks, with postponements impacting their playing schedule. Lindsey was quick to dismiss any suggestions that lack of games recently had impacted the performance.

‘There’s no excuses, we worked extremely hard on the training ground,” he said. “We should win that game. We don’t really look like we want to win it to me.”

Rather than lack of playing time, Lindsey insisted that the poor performance stemmed from a lack of professionalism in his squad.

“The training has been brilliant, and then for six minutes yesterday in training we weren’t brilliant. We’re not professional enough to keep that performance throughout the working week.

“I think it’s a mental thing, but the intensity to go and win a game is not there.”

However, he was certain he can put a stop to this issue and get Crawley Town firing again. “I’ll demand it off the group, I’m not going to roll over and make this season peter to nothing, I won’t stand for that,” he said.