'We have to be at our best' - Crawley Town boss looks ahead to tough FA Cup tie at Notts County

Saturday’s trip to Notts County in the FA cup offers a chance to kickstart November in a winning fashion. The Red Devils were beaten 2-1 away to Forest Green last time out, despite dominating much of the ball and opening the scoring. Lindsey said: “There were positives from the trip to Forest Green, especially in that first half we created a lot of chances, but we’ve got realise where we are, we’re very much a development side in many ways.”

Lindsey is looking forward to the test of Notts County, who also lost their last game at the hands of Wrexham. He said: “They are a really good side, very similar to us in many ways they’ve got some really good players and Luke (Williams) is probably a year down the line from where I am at the moment, he’s had that group of players for a while now but like I say really good way of playing.

“I’ve really enjoyed my work this week watching them and looking at how we can stop them and how we can hurt them.

SEE ALSO 'My head was never turned' - Crawley Town boss addresses Gillingham saga ahead of FA Cup tie at Notts County | 'Victim of my own success' - Crawley Town boss says Reds are still in good position despite winless October

“We’re going to have to be on our best in order for us to get anything from the game but we’ve got good players ourselves, a good way of playing and hopefully we can go there and enjoy the occasion, enjoy the game and come away with the win.”

Despite the poor run of results recently, Lindsey didn’t shy away from protecting his vision and the way he wants to continue playing. He said: “We’re possession based as well so the players are under quite a bit of pressure to play the way we’re trying to play and it’s hard for the players at times, especially when the results are not following but we will not change we’re quite adamant about that.”

Crawley are in the top five teams for possession in league two so far this season.

Lindsey has fond memories of the FA cup from his youth and coaching career. “From being a young boy watching the finals with my dad, it was always good to watch the giant killings, I always used to enjoy watching the underdog do well,” he said.

“From a coaching point of view when I was non-league I remember playing Reading, I remember playing Notts County funnily enough and then two seasons ago I played Man City for Swindon, I was the assistant manager there and the disappointment for me was Pep Guardiola didn’t come to the game as he had covid, so I was really disappointed not to of stood shoulder to shoulder with him.

“But of course, we played a full-strength Man City side so that was interesting going into that week looking at how they played and what we could do to try and hurt Man City who had top top players.”