Boss Yems is thrilled with Reds’ late victory

JOHN Yems praised Crawley’s character after they clinched victory with a stoppage time winner.

Tony Craig sealed the points when he stooped low to head home from Jack Powell’s free-kick in the fifth minute of time added on.

The defeat was a major blow for the home side, who had enjoyed plenty of possession and led at half-time through Andy Cook’s tenth goal of the season.

But in a game of three headers, Tom Nichols levelled for the visitors and then Craig sealed the points at the very end.

Yems said: “When we started off, I thought it was going to be one of those games and we’d come all this way for nothing.

“George Francomb pulled out in the warm-up, Joel Lynch went off and we give another messy goal away.

“But credit to

Lee, myself and the coaching staff, we changed the shape about a little bit in the second half and got amongst them.

“We’ve got quality players in our squad. But you’ve got to have the determination to win games and we didn’t in the first half when we looked disjointed.

“Second half we did really well and I think we deserved it in the end. We were a different team.”

The home side should have gone ahead in the 20th minute when defender Paudie O’Connor set up Cook but he fired over from close range.

However, Bradford’s leading scorer made amends when Charles Vernam’s cross from the left found him unmarked at the far post and he scored with a header.

Crawley dominated from the start of the second half and were rewarded for their improved performance when former Bradford player Mark Marshall, a second-half substitute, crossed for Nichols to head home at the far post before Craig’s late winner. Bradford boss Derek Adams was unhappy with the manner of both goals.

“They were two long balls into the box,” he said. “Finn Cousin-Dawson doesn’t deal with the first one and Niall Canavan doesn’t deal with the second.

“We should have put the game to bed. We needed a second goal.

“We controlled the game for large periods. We played really well in the first half, got a very good goal and should have gone on to score more.”