Barrow performance against Crawley epitomised our spirit – Andy Whing

Barrow boss Andy Whing felt his side’s spirit was perfectly summed up in their 2-1 victory at Crawley which gave them back-to-back wins for the first time this season.

First-half goals from Josh Gordon and Isaac Fletcher put the Bluebirds in charge and Crawley were unable to build on Geraldo Bajrami’s 65th-minute header as they fell to their sixth defeat in 10 league games.

Whing had nothing but praise for his men after a difficult week which saw the club’s training ground temporarily closed due to illness sweeping the camp.

“We have gone into the game making no excuses and we have responded with an excellent performance,” said Whing.

“We looked a really good team in the first half and it was all hands at the pumps to get us an excellent three points – the performance epitomised the spirit that we have throughout the group.”

Whing only made one change, with Regan Booty coming into the midfield, and the former Solihull Moors boss explained: “We wanted to keep the side similar after winning the week before. And when the chips were down everyone responded.”

Crawley manager Scott Lindsey criticised his men for only playing half a game, and admitted they were “not present” in the first half.

He felt they were then “very good” but were guilty of missing “massive chances” to draw or win the match.

Lindsey, who described Crawley’s previous 4-0 defeat at Notts County as “tripe” admitted: “We weren’t present in the first half and you can’t play half a game of football and concede two poor goals.

“There was no movement or guile. It was a waste of half a game and we were too slow with the ball.

“But in the second half, after a few choice words, we were completely in charge of the game although we gave ourselves too much of a mountain to climb.”

Goalkeeper Harvey Davies, on loan from Liverpool, played on despite a hand injury with Crawley having no back-up keeper on the bench, and forward Ade Adeyemo was forced off after just 10 minutes through injury.

“I don’t understand how the chances are not going in,” added a frustrated Lindsey. “It feels like there is an invisible brick wall stopping the ball from going into the net.

“I didn’t make any changes in the second half as everyone was playing well. We’ve got to pick ourselves up and keep going, but we won’t get anything if we only play half a game.”