'We can't do that' - Wrexham praised by Crawley Town boss, but he says Dragons are on a 'different journey'

It only took Wrexham just over a minute to find the opener, with Ollie Rathbone setting up Matty James to fire it in to put the away side ahead.

The Reds pressured Wrexham for the rest of the game, playing some really nice stuff and putting the defence under a lot of threat, but it was a Bradley Ibrahim volley from long distance which levelled the game in the 90th minute.

The home fans would have thought that they just got a well-deserved point from a high-flying Wrexham, but Elliot Lee prevented that from happening after his 95th minute header went into the back of the net, breaking Crawley hearts.

Elliot was extremely proud of his team’s performance against a very good Wrexham side, and praised the Red Dragons defence after holding firm for almost the full game.

Elliot said: “You could argue that the draw was a fair result in the fact that they're attacking the display against a defensive display. “To limit them, they don't concede many goals. [Phil Parkinson] Parkey's a brilliant manager, experienced, he was my manager when he gave me an opportunity when I was a kid, and I know how good he is and how organised and structured his teams are. "So, yeah, fair play to Wrexham in terms of how they defended.”

The gap between Wrexham and Crawley is a very big one, from quality of teams to how much they spend on players.

Earlier in the week, Wrexham signed former Premier League striker Jay Rodriguez and former Reading striker Sam Smith who is one of the best strikers in League One.

This already adds to the quality and depth in their squad, but apart from the result it would not be their day as Crawley performed against them, and went head-to-head with the team owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

On the match up, Elliot said: “Like you said, they are where they are on the table, their budget as a club, everything for a reason.

"It is a brilliant story on one side but I think for us, you've got to look at that and be like, right, if we can perform like that against a club like that, that has unlimited resources, that can go and buy a Premier League striker and one of the best, I think Sam Smith is one of the best strikers in this league, you can do that at the drop of a hat, stick both of them up front for the first game.

“Fair play to you, that's a different journey but we can't do that.

“We've got to find value in working hard every day, the team spirit, the people that we have and the way we play and that's what we're doing and I just thought the whole club today can be really proud, frustrated but really proud and that's what we need to keep doing going forward, we need to keep pushing forward, keep togetherness and keep fighting.”