'Two moments' - Crawley Town boss says his side need 'to stop the bleed' after Bristol Rovers defeat
Crawley Town boss Colin Kazim-Richards said two moments cost his side in the 3-1 defeat at Bristol Rovers.
Reds were 2-0 at half-time after two goals in four minutes from Ellis Harrison and Mees Rijks. Sub Louie Watson pulled one back for Crawley but after missing a number of gilt-edged chances, Yusuf Akhamrich sealed the win with a break away goal six minutes into added time.
Being the early kicks, Kazim-Richards and co were awaiting to see how their rivals at the bottom of League Two got on – but the Reds boss felt they had the chances to get something pout of the game.
"Not the result we came for, not the result that I think the boys showed on the pitch, but the main factor is scoring goals, right?” he said. “If we take the third goal away because we're really chasing the game, we're taking more risks than we would during the game, the earlier stages, but it's two moments that we went to sleep on and two moments that we got punished for.
“And I think maybe if we look at it, we've got to stop the bleed. When one goes in, we can't just receive another one and stop the bleed. But for long periods in the game, I thought we dominated the game.”
Crawley had a number of chances throughout the game but especially in the last 20 minutes but Kazim-Richards said his side need to be better at both ends of the pitch.
He said: “I thought we had chances to score. We have to be better in both boxes. That's what wins the game. I'm not an XG person. I'm talking about shots and effective shots.
“The amount of shots we had without putting the ball in the back of the net is what let us down today and the two moments.”
He added: “We have to get better with stopping the bleed and understanding the moments that we're in.
"I thought that they didn't create loads of things in terms of what they were chasing. We were able to negate that. I thought that we were very good in possession of the ball. And then again, we went to sleep on two moments, which we got punished for. And that's what the game's about, right? The game's about punishing when your opponent makes mistakes or you get in areas and we weren't able to punish. What I will say, the guys that came on, I think they made an absolute massive impact. They've given me a lot to think about now.”
Reds host Shrewsbury on Saturday.