- 5 months ago
Crawley Town travel to Harrogate Town on Saturday still looking for their first League Two win of the season. Here is Scott Lindsey's full press conference ahead of the game.
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00:00Scott, thanks for joining us. Another mega journey on the road this weekend as we travel to Harrogate.
00:05What are your thoughts heading into that one?
00:07We're desperate to win a game so we can't wait to get out there and do that.
00:13Hopefully Saturday that will be the day that we do it.
00:16We're really excited for the game, again on the road.
00:21It's another long journey but looking forward to it.
00:24What's the reaction from the players been after the Chesterfield game?
00:27Obviously we spoke about how gutting it was to not pick up three points there but there were lots of positives to take from the performance.
00:32I think because of the fact that we were obviously 2-0 up in the game and at half time it almost felt like a loss.
00:41Certainly after the game.
00:44But then we reflected on it and we learnt from moments in the game where we should have been and need to be better.
00:55And yeah, I think that on reflection you go to Chesterfield, you draw the game, you probably look at it as a positive.
01:02However, my message has to be more than that because I want to win games of football and given the fact that we're 2-0 up, I don't see it as acceptable to draw that game in my opinion.
01:13Hence the reason why I was a bit miserable after the game.
01:17But I have to drive standards.
01:20I have to drive the players on and to try and create a winning mentality is important for me.
01:26And if that means me being grumpy after the game, then so be it.
01:29Yeah, and how impressed have you been with the players mentality?
01:32Because when you walk around here and at the training ground, it doesn't feel like a club that's without a win this season.
01:37It feels like much more than that. So how impressed have you been?
01:39Really impressed. The lads know that we're really close.
01:45You know, our performances have been good. Really, I keep saying that apart from obviously the first game.
01:52The performances have been good and I feel that the players know that.
01:57You know, we've kind of drawn two games against arguably the two teams that were back to win this league or certainly get promoted.
02:08And we've been present in, you know, certainly all them games and I think that we're so close.
02:19I don't think that we've taken our chances in front of goal as well as probably other teams have.
02:26And you look at teams that are probably five or six points in front of us.
02:33Have they played as well as we have in their games? Probably not, but they've just taken their chances.
02:38So that's something that we've got to improve on, definitely.
02:41Yeah, we didn't really get a chance to speak about him after the game on Saturday.
02:44We were focused obviously on the result.
02:46How pleased are you that the fans got a chance to see the real Harry McCurdy, you know, playing in his sort of favourite position?
02:51Yeah, obviously. It was important because I think that, I think it was after the Swansea game, you know, I had a bit of a moan about that.
03:02And I don't want to sit here and say I told you so, but I did tell you so.
03:09He's a good player and he's exciting. He works extremely hard.
03:14He's a character. He's like the pantomime villain at times, you know.
03:20And yeah, he's a great character, but real kind of personality on the pitch, which we need.
03:27I mean, his first goal, we took it. He pressed so well. So first of all, hard work, right?
03:34Worked so hard up the pitch to press. He creates a bit of a melee with the goalkeeper in the centre half and then puts it in from an unbelievable angle.
03:42So great finish as well. And I thought he was really bright in the game.
03:47And I think that there's been real signs of that. I think each week we've seen an improvement in him.
03:52Of course, to start with, we were playing him out of position, but we had no choice because we had a lot of injuries to the wide players.
03:58And I'm really pleased for him. And I think that you can, I think Harry, Harry's one of them if he's scoring, his whole life is happy.
04:08You know what I mean? His whole kind of like life at home will be better.
04:12I think that football's a big thing for him if he's scoring goals and Chelsea are winning, then he's happy, you know.
04:18So yeah, he's in a good place at the moment.
04:22Yeah, we've relied on obviously some fresh legs coming in with the injuries that we've been dealing with.
04:26Another player that really impressed at the weekend was Gerardo Badrami.
04:29Obviously he hasn't played a great deal of minutes in the last two years, been really unlucky with injury,
04:33but he sort of slotted in seamlessly, didn't he?
04:35Yeah, we worked hard to get Badgin.
04:38He's a very, very comfortable footballer who can play in the middle of the midfield as a pivot or can play in the back line.
04:47A good size, you know, something that we haven't been blessed with, really.
04:54You know, we've had a lot of technical players who are quite small and nimble.
04:59So he adds to that physicality, but certainly a very, very good footballer, very comfortable on the ball,
05:05kind of understands how to play in a possession-based team.
05:09You know, we did sessions this week about kind of when to arrive at what point to play certain passes and he gets it straight away.
05:17So I can see that he's been well coached before.
05:21And yeah, he fits in, like you say, seamlessly within our team.
05:27Yeah, and speaking of size, since we last spoke, we obviously added Ryan Loft up front as well.
05:31Another good addition, as you say, it brings something else to the team of, you know, what we didn't necessarily have before.
05:37Yeah, definitely. I think that the biggest thing for me was bringing a little bit more Nowson experience to the team.
05:44Obviously he did that with Scott Malone and now Lofty as well.
05:48You know, he's added to that little bit of experience, played many games in the Football League.
05:53And I think he's 27 years of age. It's not kind of a young, young one.
05:58And I'm watching him in training, you know, I'm quite excited to see him play.
06:04You know, he's a good footballer, first of all. He's come out of Tottenham.
06:08So, you know, Tottenham don't usually have bad footballers for a start.
06:11So he's come out of there. He can handle the ball, you know, really well.
06:17He's actually really, really quick. You know, he's a fast runner for a big lad.
06:22And he's a big lad, which obviously, again, we've not been blessed with certainly at the top of the pitch over the times I've been here.
06:31Not that we're going to start lumping it forward because we're not, but it gives us that physicality from set pieces in both boxes.
06:41And probably would encourage us to probably cross the ball more, which I've been trying to get the players to do anyway.
06:47So, yeah, so brilliant signing for me. Looking forward to seeing him play.
06:53He's been amazing in training, I've got to say. So, yeah, I think it's a really good signing.
06:59Thanks. Yeah. Talking of transfer deadline date, was there, is there any deals that you got quite close to that you disappointed you didn't get or?
07:08Yeah, there is. There was. There was one that we got close to.
07:16In fact, we're still waiting to hear from the AFL whether we get it through or not.
07:22I don't know if I can explain that or not.
07:24That's about as much as you can explain it.
07:26Okay. Fair enough.
07:27Fair enough.
07:29Fair enough.
07:30So, yeah.
07:31So, kind of an ongoing process, weirdly enough.
07:33So, even though the deadlines happen, but I think you can appeal certain things.
07:37That sounds frustrating.
07:39Yeah.
07:40Yeah.
07:41You were quite robust in your comments after the game on Saturday.
07:44You said you were miserable earlier.
07:46I'm interested in how the players react when they hear you say things like that.
07:50Are you impressed with the way they react to that?
07:52Do they take it on the chin or what's their mentality?
07:55No, their mentality is brilliant and they agree.
07:58They agree because...
08:00And I said to them after the game, I don't need to raise my voice to tell you the truth,
08:03but I'm going to tell you the truth.
08:04So, I just spoke really open to them about what I felt.
08:08And sometimes I protect them.
08:13And sometimes I don't say what I think or feel, certainly in the press.
08:19But I just felt that Saturday was a game where we let it slip through our own doing, in my opinion.
08:29There's no way they should be able to score from a throw-in that easy.
08:33And there's no way they should score from a ball being put in our box.
08:36Certainly when we've done a work on it all week and when we spoke about it in the meeting,
08:41we did a whole section on marking in the box.
08:43And then he scores through a player not being marked in the box.
08:46So, that's frustrating for me as a coach when I know I've done the work.
08:49And the players agree. The players agree with, you know, we have to really understand when we're in front
08:59that we've got to do better. We've got to do more to keep the result.
09:03And I think that the players are open.
09:07And I kind of understand it where they become real anxious.
09:13You're winning 2-0 away from 8,000 people there against arguably one of the better teams in the division.
09:21And the anxious kind of anxiousness sets in, certainly in the second half.
09:29And especially when they score quite early on in the second half to make it 2-1.
09:34And then it almost feels like it's going to happen, you know what I mean?
09:39And it's because we've not won a game.
09:41Had we have probably won a game before going to Chesterfield, we'd probably see that result out.
09:45If that makes sense.
09:46So, it's kind of a mental thing as well.
09:48Which I've got to, as a manager, understand that it's alright.
09:52Me stood on the sideline saying you should have done this, you should have done that.
09:55But when you're out there, it's different.
09:57And I do know that because I've played in football matches myself and felt them moments
10:01where you think, oh, we're under pressure here or this is going to happen, that's going to happen.
10:04And a negative mindset sets in.
10:06And we've got to try and make sure that we overcome that.
10:09And I know it's difficult and I understand that.
10:11And I do listen to the players and I do understand that.
10:16So, yeah, I was very grumpy after the game.
10:19But I want it to be clear that, and I think it's got to be clear to my players more than anybody,
10:25that I want to win games of football.
10:28I don't accept going 2-0 up and then during a game.
10:31And I think the players need to feel that from me.
10:33Yeah.
10:34And during the promotion winning season, the away form was excellent, wasn't it?
10:38And I think you broke records of away form.
10:41And obviously, during one of those away wins was at Harrogate.
10:45I think it was 2-1.
10:46Clyde scored that amazing goal.
10:48Does the result at Chesterfield make you think that you can repeat that kind of away form this season?
10:54Yeah, for sure.
10:56Yeah, I don't necessarily think it matters whether it's home or away.
11:00We've got to win games of football.
11:01We're capable of doing that.
11:03You've seen that last week.
11:04We're tuning up at Chesterfield.
11:06We should have gone on and won that, that's my point.
11:09But yeah, I think we're more than capable of repeating that.
11:13I think that we're very close to being a good side.
11:18Very, very close to being a good side.
11:20We've just got to make sure we start well.
11:25And if we get in front, we've got to try and manage moments in the game better than we are doing at the moment.
11:30Yeah, and you mentioned earlier about the finishing.
11:32There have been chances where, like Cahim last week.
11:36How do you coach that?
11:37Is that just a confidence thing or is it a technical thing?
11:40What do you do to try and work on that finishing?
11:42Yeah, of course you can always improve the players through individual coaching.
11:47You know, I think we worked it out before this week.
11:53We'd had, I think it was 14 training sessions.
11:56Obviously from the start of the season leading into the Grimmsby game,
12:0314 training sessions to the end of last week leading into Chesterfield.
12:08And that's obviously we have Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday games in between.
12:13So there's been times when we haven't trained. We've obviously been preparing the team.
12:18Within them 14 sessions, there's been eight sessions that have been around finishing, putting the ball in the net.
12:26So, you know, you always kind of reflect on yourself.
12:29Have we done enough as coaching staff?
12:31And the answer is, yeah, we have.
12:34And the only thing we can do is continue that work as much as we can and try.
12:39Whether that's individually where we take two or three of the forwards away after training,
12:44you know, after we've done the bulk of the session to do some finishing at the end,
12:48or whether that's within the training sessions, whether it's even on a Monday we do attacking patterns
12:53where we finish with a goal or a shot or a cross.
12:58And it's just, you know, repetition of it. It really is.
13:03And probably talking about detail, I think it's important that the forwards all see their chances back.
13:10You know, we've got a new analyst in now, so hopefully we've got a little bit of help there
13:15so we can sit down and do video, individual video stuff with the players.
13:20And I think it's important that they watch all their chances back and understand
13:24what could they have done better or differently.
13:27But yeah, I think you can always improve, definitely.
13:31I don't think it's a case of, oh, it's luck.
13:34Sometimes it can be a bit of luck, maybe.
13:36Nine times out of ten it's because, you know, we need to improve technically, tactically as well.
13:43You know, the team needs to put the ball into areas more than probably we have done.
13:48So yeah, I think that we can ask more questions of the opposition by doing so.
13:55I think that we get to a point up the pitch where sometimes we rush the action
14:00or we don't take long enough, you know what I mean?
14:02We have to get that balance in between.
14:04But trust me, there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes in terms of can we improve?
14:11Are we doing enough as coaches?
14:13And I think the answer is yes.
14:16But, you know, we need to continue that work.
14:20Yeah, and looking at Harrogate, any players coming back?
14:23Anyone missing?
14:25Is there any players coming back?
14:28Kian Dixon's missing through international.
14:30Yeah, of course.
14:32Gav Hulleran has served his suspension now, so he comes into the squad potentially.
14:44We may have one or two missing, but I don't want to say at this stage.
14:47Okay.
14:48Just through injury.
14:49And has Ryan lost down a good chance of starting on Saturday?
14:51Yeah.
14:52Yeah, he's fit.
14:53He's fit and available.
14:55So yeah, he stands a chance of being involved in the game certainly.
14:59So yeah, exciting to see him in a crawly shirt actually, you know.
15:07I think it's something that I've never had is kind of a little bit of size up the pitch.
15:11So, you know, see how that looks.
15:13But yeah, I'm looking forward to that.
15:15Brilliant, thanks Scott.
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