'Real character' - Crawley Town boss 'proud' as Reds progress to last 16 of EFL Trophy after Bristol Rovers win

Crawley Town boss Scott Lindsey applauds the crowd after his side beat Bristol Rovers 2-1 in the EFL Trophy at the Broadfield Stadium. Picture: Eva Gilbert

The Pirates dominated the first half, leading to Corey Addai having to make a lot of saves to keep The Reds in the game, but he could not keep out Luke Thomas, who scored after dispossessing Aaron Henry on the edge of the area.

Crawley came out into the second half a different team, and that could be applied to Jack Roles, after a poor first half display grabbed the equaliser before Harry Forster ran from his own half past the whole Bristol Rovers team before expertly placing it past Matthew Cox for a brilliant win for Lindsey’s team.

Reacting to the game, Lindsey said: “Really proud of the team, I thought they dug in and showed real character, especially in the second half. We were a little bit ponderous in the first half, a little bit slow with our play.

“That will be the only downside for me, just the way they played in the first half.”

Bristol Rovers sit 11th in League One, 24 places above The Reds but a cup upset at Broadfield stadium was on the cards tonight and Lindsey praised his young team after facing a tough opposition.

He said: “There a young team and they are learning all the time, and they will be better for it. They went really strong tonight and I’m really proud of the team tonight.”

Crawley came out in the second half much better than, the first half and went on to dominate the league one outfit and score two goals to win the game.

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On what he said at half time, Lindsey said: “To be more confident, just to have that bit more swagger around us, even though we are playing against a really good league one side.”

Dion Conroy has not played since the 4-2 loss to Crewe through injury and came on to play his first minutes since that game.

Lindsey said: “Brilliant to have Dion back, he’s been a big miss for us, and he comes in contention for Saturday now.”

Lindsey has used this competition to rotate his squad, to give other players a chance to play and impress, and he liked what he saw tonight, including Jack Roles who scored the equaliser.

He said: “I think they have been fantastic in every game. [Jack Roles] been brilliant, kind of bright spark especially in that second half.”

Another player who stood out was Harry Forster, who had a fantastic game and scored a world class goal to top it off. Lindsey said: “Great kid, he wants to play in the first team, he knocks on my door quite a lot, which I like which shows that he cares. I thought he was one of the positives from the first half, and then he continued his performance into the second half as well and scored an unbelievable goal. I thought he was very good tonight.”

This is the furthest the club has gone in this competition, and doing it while beating two League One teams, but even though they are very far in it, Lindsey still isn’t scared of any teams.

Lindsey said: “Why would we, we’ve played brilliantly throughout the competition and played some good sides as well. I don’t even know who is still in it, I’m not really bothered.”

Bristol Rovers scored right before half time, with Aaron Henry being tackled on the edge of his own area, but Lindsey believed the Rovers player got the ball unfairly.

He said: “I felt it was a foul on Aaron Henry, but I did think it was a poor decision from us to play out at that moment.”

Crawley will be making the trip to a struggling Colchester on Saturday, with Lindsey looking for a win to turn around their recent poor away form.

He said: “We’re really mindful that we need to put it right [away form]. I know Ben Gladwin, the captain, is having meetings on Thursday regarding the away form and how they see it and how they can try and turn that round.”

Regarding the EFL trophy, Crawley will find out their last 16 opponents in the draw on Friday live on sky sports, played the week commencing the 8th January.