RAPID REDS GIVE CLOUGH ROUGH RIDE
MANSFIELD Town boss Nigel Clough has told his players to forget Saturday’s home mauling and quickly move on.
The Stags’ heaviest defeat of the campaign saw them drop out of the top three, while it was a fourth successive win on the road for Crawley as they strengthened their play-off claims.
“Everything that could go wrong did go wrong on the pitch today in terms of our performance,” said Clough.
“Defensively we were going to be vulnerable with so many defenders injured. We looked more like a team fighting relegation rather than one chasing promotion which was worrying.
“But it’s finished now. As bad as it’s been, it’s gone and there’s nothing you can do about it.
“All we can do is look towards the last five games and concentrate on them. We have to win on Tuesday to stay in the race – end of story.
“We’ve taken one point out of nine. When you’re chasing at the top of the league you can’t afford to do that at this stage.”
Crawley made the perfect start as Kellan Gordon
fired in a low shot against his old club after just four minutes. Twenty minutes later Nicholas Tsaroulla bagged the second after a great run by Ronan Darcy.
The game was over when the visitors netted twice in as many minutes after the break. In the 55th minute bad defending allowed Danilo Orsi to steer in a third and, soon after, Klaidi Lolos raced down the centre to add the fourth.
Sub Hiram Boateng did grab a late consolation.
With a strong wind at their backs, Crawley had begun on the front foot.
Mansfield struggled to clear a Tsaroulla cross and the ball ran to Gordon, whose finish found its way past Christy Pym and inside the far post.
Davis Keillor-Dunn blazed a chance over for Mansfield following an error from Dion Conroy.
But Crawley were 2-0 up as Darcy’s run ended with Tsaroulla cutting inside onto his pass and lifting a great finish over Pym from 15 yards.
Any hopes Stags had of a fightback were wrecked by two Crawley goals in as many minutes.
Poor defending allowed Orsi to control and tuck away a six yarder from a Tsaroulla cross and a minute later the pace of Lolos saw him net low from 16 yards.
Stags bagged an 80th minute consolation when Boateng tucked away a George Williams cross from eight yards.
Crawley boss Scott Lindsey said: “That was a big result for us today. I thought we scored really good goals and I’m clearly delighted.
“I can’t ask for too much more with a result like this at Mansfield, who are a really good side.
“That’s the quietest I’ve ever known Mansfield fans. They are usually noisy but I could hear our fans over them from the start of the game right to the end.
“I know we were 2-0 up but I wasn’t happy with our first half performance. I made that clear to the players.
“I felt we turned the ball over a lot. We are usually more secure with the ball. Second half I thought we were outstanding and managed things much better.
“The players were outstanding with the effort they put in.
“Confidence is high. If anything I’ve got to cool them off a bit. We can’t wait to get to Wrexham on Tuesday.”
Pym 6, Bowery 6, Hewitt 6 (McLaughlin 62, 6), Flint 6, Williams 6, O Clarke 7, Reed 6 (Maris 62,
6), Akins 6 (Nichols 63, 6), Keillor-Dunn 6 (Lewis 62, 6), Swan 6, Quinn 6 (Boateng 63, 7). Gale, Flinders.
Addai 7, Wright 7 (Mukena 78, 6), Conroy 6, Maguire 7, Gordon 8 (Adeyemo 68, 6), Williams 7 (Kelly 60, 6), Lolos 8, Tsaroulla 8, Darcy 8 (Roles78, 6), Kelly 7, Orsi8 (Campbell 68, 6). Sandford, Khaleel.