YEMS SATISFIED WITH STALEMATE
NEW Crawley boss John Yems was as pleased as punch to see his side earn a point on his debut in the dugout as they played out a dour goalless draw at Stevenage.
The 60-year-old was handed the reins earlier in the week following the departure of Gabriele Cioffi and he admitted he was glad to take a share of the spoils.
Cioffi’s tenure ended last Monday following 72 games in charge and the club turned to their former caretaker-manager, handing him a deal until the end of the season.
Bez Lubala fashioned the best chance of the game midway through the second half after rounding Paul Farman, but scuffed his shot wide to leave the spoils shared.
“From a personal point of view, it’s been a delight this past couple of days to be around the boys and from what I’ve seen today, we’ve got plenty to be excited about,” said Yems.
“Ever since I was young, it was drilled into me that if you can’t take three points, make sure you leave with what you started the game with, and we’ve done that.
“It’s been a whirlwind period since we came in and you’re never going to truly affect things in such a short time, but to a man they’ve shown a response to what’s happened and there’s plenty to build on.”
After a slow start, Stevenage’s Terence Vancooten misjudged what should have been a regulation clearance, providing Ashley Nadesan with a golden opportunity, only for the Crawley forward to mishit his shot.
Despite Stevenage having plenty of the ball it was the visitors who were much the livelier in attack, Nadesan having another sight of goal, but yet again failing to extend Farman.
Jason Cowley provided a moment of note for Stevenage, cracking one effort from 20 yards that had Glenn Morris diving high to his left, but that was as it good as it got for a team noticeably devoid of confidence in front of goal.
Caretaker Stevenage boss Mark Sampson believes his side need to hit the transfer market to start turning draws into wins after being held at the Lamex.
“We’re disappointed with that,” said Sampson. “Because we really wanted to come back home after a little while away and show our supporters the progress we are making.
“Being solid and keeping clean sheets is great and of course I’m chuffed we are such a difficult side to break down. But going forward it was pretty poor today.
“There are a lot of games coming up though so there’ll be plenty of opportunities for this group to show they can be as good offensively as they are defensively. We’ll certainly do our best in the transfer window to see who we might be able to add in that forward department, because we need to.
“That’ll help us turn these tight games into wins.”