Crawley Town beat Stevenage 3-1 at the Broadfield Stadium. Here is Rob Elliot's full post-match press conference.
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00:00Rob, thank you for joining us. Finally we're sitting here on the end of a deserved three
00:07points. Can I get your thoughts on the game first?
00:09Yeah, it's a tough first half because they make it really difficult. We're a good team
00:12Stevenage. But then we stay consistent, we do the right things and then we get the reward.
00:17Obviously a disappointment can be a seed from a set piece because we've been working really
00:20hard and they've been excellent. But they are a massive, big, powerful team. But the
00:24reaction to go again, I think Stevenage could have had a couple maybe, but I think we could
00:29have had five, six and sevens by the end. So yeah, really, really good performance.
00:35But we've just got to move on to Saturday now. That's where we're at now, business end.
00:39We've just got to keep going. One thing I will say and make clear is that you only get
00:43those wins and then performances by being consistent and taking the rough with this
00:48move. We come away from Bolton really disappointed from a couple of deflections that cost us the
00:52game. Amongst other things, by the way, we were brilliant. But overall I thought we're
00:57scoring goals, we're defending reasonably well and we're getting punished. But if you
01:01stay consistent, you keep doing the right things, it does turn. And I thought tonight
01:05we got what we deserved, probably not just for tonight, but the last couple of games.
01:09And they're excellent gamers with all the decisions. So yeah, I'm really pleased with
01:13the lads, so proud of the lads and the group. So yeah, we just need to take the positives
01:19and now understand why we got the performance and move on to Saturday.
01:22Yeah, fair play to the lads because it must have been a real hard moment when
01:26Stevenage did equalise because you've got the memories of the past three or four games
01:30where we've scored and then conceded almost instantly. And I can imagine there must be
01:34inside the players had a great deal of panic and almost just get really upset because you
01:38think, oh no, it's happened again. So massive credit has to go to the players for their
01:43fight and determination to keep going and eventually gets the deserved three points
01:46as you say.
01:46Yeah, apologies for my bionic. It's freezing out there, I'm sweating. Yeah, no, it's just
01:50incredible. Individual performances, I don't think you can really pick anyone out. I thought
01:55everyone was exceptional in what they did. And yeah, we just have to make sure that we
01:59stay consistent and keep moving forward. It's good that having Dunes and Cammy to come off
02:04the bench and tie changed the game, to be honest with you. So to be able to maintain
02:11a level or increase a level was fantastic and to be able to enjoy young players, 19-year-olds
02:17in Cammy. Bradley Abraham was exceptional yet again. And yeah, being able to watch two
02:23young centre-halves in Bradley and Charlie, dealing behind them and Jojo who's had a difficult
02:28time, you know. But football changes quickly and Jojo's come in and again, brings that
02:33calmness, brings that mentality and he was fantastic. So yeah, it's just about making
02:39sure that we keep consistent, we move on to Saturday but we've got our belief in the fact
02:44that we will get results and that you have to win every moment of every football match.
02:47You can't allow moments to dictate what you do and why you do it.
02:51Yeah, we're going to have another two games in a row here but no better way to bring the
02:57momentum up, bring the morale up than celebrating three points in front of the fans like that.
03:01So it's going to do wonders, isn't it?
03:02Yeah, apologies if my fist bumps with tyres. I'm terrible at them. No, it was brilliant
03:07obviously to see the fans' reaction at the end, seeing them clapped off. And do you know
03:10what? We've had a couple of moments away from home but home fans especially and the atmosphere
03:17and the performances at home, I think have been very, very good, even if the results
03:21haven't always mirrored that. And then away from home is such a threat, we need to manage
03:25moments better. So no, just really pleased with everyone at the club but I don't want
03:28to get too carried away because it's another foot forward and that's it. This group that
03:33we've got together now are really brought in, they're doing everything we're asking
03:38and they're brave and they're young and they're hungry and they're inexperienced but they'll
03:42get better by working hard and sticking to the principles. And what I love tonight,
03:48like Ty for example, when you look at Cammy's goal, which is just incredible, but watch
03:53Ty, if you have the chance, watch Ty, watch his work rate, he covers the whole side of
03:56the pitch to put the pressure on to then put the defender under pressure to make the pass
04:00and then Cammy obviously does what he does. So we're scoring good goals but it's all
04:04for our work rate, it's all for our intensity. I know Rushie was just incredible tonight,
04:08I know he'll be disappointed in the score but that Rush Murphy is anything he wants
04:12to be but he's got to keep them levels and he needs to realise how important he is for
04:16the group and the team. Just really enjoyable to watch despite it being such a tough game
04:22because Steve just breaking the game up, they take their time, they've got good forward
04:26players, Kemp's an excellent player, the defenders are experienced and aggressive and I thought
04:30we managed them really well at times and I thought they were good but I thought that
04:34was the most difficult game. So to get three points against them was, I'm really pleased
04:38because we've got a very good team and they're well managed and well set up.
04:41Yeah, as you say, we are scoring goals for fun at the moment but I also do want to give
04:46some credit to the defence. I know obviously we have conceded a fair few goals recently
04:50but we're actually defending a lot of actions really well and that back line, obviously
04:54you've got the experience of doing corner in the middle but Ben and Charlie are two
04:57really young centre-backs but they just looked so comfortable playing at this level. Obviously
05:02Ben's been let go by Darby, obviously Chasmier gone from the other end of the scale, Wilston
05:07coming up and they both look so comfortable at this level. How pleasing is that for you
05:10to see?
05:11Yeah, but it's just their character before anything else. Ben's a real winner, he is
05:16and he's a monster. He looks after himself, he's so professional, same with Charlie.
05:19Like Charlie Barker really, when you come into the start of the season, if he'd have
05:23played ten games you'd have said that's a good season for Charlie. In fact he's actually
05:26playing every week and we're hanging our hopes on him and actually you don't even single
05:30him out because his levels are so good every week. There's things he needs to improve on,
05:33he's in possession at times and sometimes in the organisation but he's 21 and he's
05:38playing League One football. He's been exceptional, Ben's added to the group massively. Dion,
05:45it's gone under the radar Dion's return because we have conceded goals but Dion's
05:49managed his body after five months with no football. We're still only six weeks into
05:53his recovery and he's just trained three days and played every single minute so that's
05:58a proper captain. He might not be the Terry Butcher type of captain but there's different
06:02types of leadership and leading by example and being a good person and keeping the values
06:07of the club is what Dion's doing. He's only going to get better and better and with Rory
06:12coming in obviously he's an add to us, we've got Benji there, we've got Finlay coming back
06:16hopefully, Toby. Two young lads don't let anyone take your place but also we just need
06:22to know that it's a squad that wins games. The squad won the game today, everyone.
06:27Yeah and obviously as you've already mentioned in there, Joe came in and done a great job,
06:30obviously made a couple of really important saves. Unfortunately I think we can confirm
06:34that we're probably going to lose Max for the rest of the season, he's going to have
06:36to go back to Brentford for rehab for an injury sustained during the game that he's somehow
06:40managed to keep playing through. So yeah obviously a big shame for him but that'll be a real
06:44confidence booster to Joe to come straight back into the side and play like that.
06:47Yeah we've got a lot of stick for time wasting which is, the referee accused me of telling
06:51my players time waste which I've never done in my entire life. Coxey played with a torn
06:57hamstring or torn injury for like 25 minutes amongst other collisions and whatnot so yeah
07:05that is what it is, it's gone now but I think ultimately the performance was good last week.
07:10I know people won't agree but it was two deflected goals and another contentious incident that
07:17that takes it away but that performance leads to this and it's the mentality of the players,
07:23the fact that they still kept going and still did the right things from Burton to Mansfield to
07:29Wrexham to Bolton to today. We've just got to keep putting it together for 95 minutes
07:33and 98 minutes or whatever it is so yeah genuinely really really pleased, really really proud
07:39but that's what I want to see, I just want to see young hungry people, young hungry group
07:42of just going out giving absolutely everything because we know when we do that we are more than
07:47capable of not only just winning games of football but winning them in a way that we want to win
07:50them and that was what was so pleasing today. You mentioned Ty's contribution to the final goal,
07:57just want to mention Will Swan's touch for the first goal, I mean Will Swan obviously he's been
08:02playing wider now, he played left I think on Saturday and then he played right tonight,
08:06will Howard just talk about his contribution? Swan has got under the radar in the fact that
08:11he works so hard, he's never really played this amount of games before, you know you'd probably
08:15argue and Swan probably wouldn't mind me saying he's more of an impact player as he's come through
08:18the ranks at Mansfield but you know he's got a definite goal threat and we found ourselves in a
08:23situation with injuries that we've had to you know manipulate the team to get Swan in it but also
08:28you know have that attacking threat where we've got you know three strikers on the pitch but
08:31Swan's work rate it just sets the tone for the team and he does so much for the group you know,
08:37not many strikers you ask, not many number nines will go and play left wing back away
08:40from home and at home and run up and down and give absolutely everything, you know he had a
08:44sore tight fire today and he was struggling but he come in he did the work and he put himself
08:48available, he could have easily have said well I'm struggling but he didn't and he went out there
08:51and then obviously that sublime touch and you know we haven't seen the best of this one yet
08:55but I still think you know he's been excellent so really pleased with him, Toller as well you know
09:00Toller probably wasn't in his best today but ultimately the first 40 minutes, 45, 55 minutes
09:07you know he did his job for the team, he wore them down, he ran them, he had a great
09:10frugal to rushy but again Toller's been playing football in England for six months at most and
09:15you know there's a lot of development here with these players but unfortunately with that there
09:18is always going to be a bit of inconsistency but as long as the consistency improves and we just
09:23work towards the end point where we are exactly where we think this young talented group can be.
09:27Yeah you say you got booked, can you tell us what that was for or you don't want to talk about that?
09:33It's just getting ridiculous now like I know Aaron he's a good full official to be fair he's a nice
09:37lad but it's a clear handball right, well that's what I perceive it is I haven't seen it but it
09:46is what it is but it's like it's consistent decisions like Brad Ibrahim getting booked in
09:50the 30th minute for not stopping an attack nothing he said the ref said he's kicked him
09:54I was like what he stamped on him he's like no he just went to tackle him and kicked him I was like
09:58okay so you're just like look I get it and they got the highest job in the world I genuinely
10:02have all my respect they genuinely do even if it doesn't seem like that but it's just frustrating
10:06when you get booked because at some point you do lose your temper and I'm a young manager I need
10:10to control that more but it's just frustrating that we it's tough enough for us in this league
10:15isn't it let's be honest to then have the decisions you have to go against this and then the consistency
10:20because we're a possession based team as well and we're not the most physical I feel like we don't
10:23get the protection and then when you see it turned around the other way it just doesn't make sense
10:27so yeah it's one of the ones where it's not as horrendous as I make out but it's just frustrating
10:33and yeah you know ultimately I should learn to control my temper a little bit more but you also
10:38have to make the point because I think if it's right it's right just as much as I criticize the
10:41lads criticize myself but overall that what I was pleased with today is nothing it Brad's reaction
10:49from the yellow card to be able to maintain 90 minutes was exceptional it's elite mentality
10:54but I'm pleased that for once we didn't have a contentious result that decides points because
10:58that's the most frustrating thing if teams hurt us and break us down and you know we should do
11:02better from the corner that's fine that's on us but when you get in contentious match winning
11:06decisions when Wrexham for example etc that's that's the that's the hard pill to swallow
11:11yeah and results seem to have gone your way tonight in the other games are your three points off
11:16safety now how important was it getting this win with these three home games just to give you a
11:22real boost yeah they got the toughest tests on Saturday with uh with Wickham but um yeah we have
11:28to do like the home form is always going to be massive you know we've had a tough run a real
11:31tough run away from home and the scheduling with it and the fixtures so um yeah but again we just
11:37need to make sure that all we can control is this we can control our recovery we can control our
11:41mentality towards Wickham and then I think you know what we have got now is we've got good choices
11:45within the within the middle and within the squad um with Liam coming in you know we'll get him up
11:51to speed um etc and hopefully we'll be coming back in players coming back fit so it's gonna be
11:56tough decisions now we've obviously lost the extra sub because the the club where we let Raf go to um
12:03to Dagenham um which is right for him you know because he was a homegrown player but it's right
12:08for him to continue his career because he wasn't getting the opportunities here um so then yeah it
12:12makes the selection you know have to go about goalkeeper to get six players and we have to
12:15maybe go over goalkeeper in games where we feel it's necessary so I'm sure I'll get that completely
12:19wrong but I'll try my best to get it right and yeah and I just think the biggest thing is the
12:24lads won that together every single one of them the whole squad in the dressing room after the
12:27game which is which is what you want to see brilliant thanks Rob