'We controlled the whole game' - Frustrated Crawley Town boss praises side after draw at Northampton Town

The Cobblers went ahead in the 38th minute through Nathaniel Opoku but were down to ten men for the majority of the second half after Lee Evans’ red card.

Substitute Dion Pereira made it 1-1 in the 68th minute but Reds could not find winner despite hitting the post and forcing some top saves from home keeper Zach Jeacock.

Kazim-Richards was frustrated by the result and said it felt like a loss but was pleased with how his team performed. And he said it might have been better if the home side had not gone down to 10 men.

"It was frustration in terms of the result, but not the performance, especially coming off the back of the way we performed and the result against Bristol Rovers,” he said. “To come here away and in an evening game on Tuesday night and perform like that. I think that in terms of confidence and energy and mentality-wise and character-wise for the team is top.

"Yes, we still dropped two points, but I'm telling you that's going to be a massive point in terms of where we want to go.

“I'm still waiting for the win-win, we call it, the double win performance and result. Today We pushed and pushed. I think if they didn't go down to 10 men we probably would have done it because they don't just stay in a block and shuffle as much. In terms of character and endeavour, I thought our team was top.

"I thought we started off the first two minutes, three minutes not as we wanted to after that, I thought we just controlled the whole game, the whole game.”

The Reds boss also added that there hasn’t been a team that has ‘actually just beat us’ and said it’s unforced errors that is making his side’s life difficult.

He said: “It is frustrating because we know how good we can be, but we have to limit the unforced errors, the switching off for one second because it seems when we do that, we get punished and then we have to work really hard to score and control the game.

"We have to limit that down, so it's something that as a coaching team we're going to have to put in place. We're going to have to come up with solutions for that. But we in turn beat ourselves. I can say when we've played our way and not done unforced errors in terms of whether it be red cards, sleeping on a quick throw, there isn't a team that's actually just beat us.”

But Kazim-Richards promised fans this isn’t a team that isn’t going to not win games when they play well. “I'm telling you, we aren't going to be one of those teams that the performance we did really well and then didn't get the points. I'm telling you, we'll change and we'll start pushing.

"But in terms of a point away on a Tuesday night, first double week, it can be turned into a good point. But sitting here right now, in my mind, it does feel like a loss. But the next step forward, we can turn this into a massive point for sure. It's probably a valuable opportunity to look at this as a bit of a reset after the Bristol game.”

Reds travel to Accrington Stanley on Saturday.