Matt Harrold; '˜Crawley have been punching above their weight'

He highlighted the small squad compared with other clubs but insisted they have quality within the group.

Harrold also observed his former club Yeovil Town looked more energetic despite having played extra-time in the FA Cup earlier in the week.

He said: “I think they looked a bit sharper than us and considering they played extra-time on Tuesday, that’s not acceptable.

“That’s something we need to look at but I think we have an honest group of players in there and so I don’t like to say we were out-fought but I just thought they (Yeovil) were better.

“They were a bit sharper and a bit more on the front foot than us and that’s been our strength this season, so it’s a very hard one to take.

“We have to take the medicine, get on with it and react because that’s all we can do – react from what has been a disappointing away day.

“Everyone has got to be a bit realistic because we have about 15 players with us.

“We haven’t got a huge squad, we struggle to play 11 versus 11 in training during the week.

“In a lot of ways, we have punched above our weight this season but I still think that while we don’t have many, we have got good players within our numbers.

“We just didn’t look sharp enough which I don’t think is good enough.”