'We’ve got to see games out better' - Crawley Town midfielder after Grimsby Town defeat

Max Watters’ stunner gave the Reds an early lead before goals from Matt Green and Max Wright saw the Mariners come from behind to take all three points.

Hessenthaler believes his side got complacent , and claims that has happened in a couple of games this season.

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Speaking after the game he said:“We started the game really well, we went one goal up and I thought we were controlling the game for the first 10-20 minutes and maybe we took our foot off the gas. We’ve done that in a few games like the Harrogate and Southend games and maybe we took that for granted. But we started the game really well and we’ve got to see games out better.”

On a personal level, Hessenthaler didn’t enjoy losing against his old club, but says he was more worried about the three points. “It’s not nice to lose against your old club, but the main thing was trying to get the three points," he said:

"We didn’t do that today and that’s the most disappointing thing for me. Some of the play wasn’t us, we weren’t that good on the ball today.”

Reds have now lost back-to-back home games, having been unbeaten at home for a year before last week.

He said “We’ve had a really good record, but you’ve got to take every game as it comes. Now we’ve lost two on the bounce we’ve got to take that on the chin and go and set a new record.”

Despite recent results, Hessenthaler is confident his team can get back to winning ways and regain their confidence: “We’ve lost the last couple, but we were on a good run of form before that and the belief and the confidence was there and we’ve got to get that back and the only way of getting that back is by grinding it out, because we know we’ve got it in there, we’ve done it before.

"We’ve got to keep grafting and hopefully get that win again.”

Looking ahead, Hessenthaler says he would rather face AFC Wimbledon in the FA Cup Second Round, due to the distance between Barrow and Crawley, but acknowledges the challenge that both teams will present: “Obviously you would rather not travel too far, but both games are going to be tough. We know we’ve lost two on the bounce now, but we know we’re a good team and we can bounce back from this and go again.”