On-song Reds have the gift of the Gab
NEW Crawley head coach Gabriele Cioffi said it was a perfect start to his tenure after second-half goals from Ashley Nathaniel George and Panutche Camara gave the Reds a home win over struggling Morecambe.
Italian Cioffi (43) was booked directly after Camara’s goal for celebrating on the pitch with his players. The celebrations continued at the final whistle, when Cioffi and his team took a bow in front of the fans.
He admitted: “It was important to collect three points and we played a good game.
“They did everything I asked of them and I’m really happy for them.
“I didn’t know the rules when I went on the pitch.
“At the end of the match I wanted to do it and celebrate.
“We have to be one group to achieve something special.”
Cioffi was on the coaching staff at Birmingham during Gianfranco Zola’s ill-fated four-month tenure as boss.
He added: “Birmingham is an amazing club, but it was at the wrong moment. But my heart is here now.
“Let’s say Birmingham was my first girlfriend, but now I have a wife!”
The Reds broke the deadlock in fine style after 52 minutes, with George bursting through to slot his first goal for the club to the left of long-serving goalkeeper Barry Roche.
Camara doubled the advantage only three minutes later from the centre of the goal, putting the ball in at the second attempt after defensive slackness.
Morecambe boss Jim Bentley labelled his side’s home clash against fellow strugglers Macclesfield next week as a “must win” game after tumbling to a seventh defeat in eight league matches.
He said: “I`m not soft, I know the game and our game against Macclesfield is a must win. “We might be the smallest team in the league but we are making poor errors at one end, and not doing enough at the other.
“We gave them a leg-up when we went behind and then a catalogue of errors made it 2-0, and away from home its’s always going to be tough from there.
“I would take a scrappy 1-0. Unfortunately, we gave them two goals. We lost discipline, we lost the game and it was scandalous.”