Scott Lindsey offers scathing assessment after Crawley lose at Cambridge

Manager Scott Lindsey offered a scathing assessment of his Crawley side’s 3-1 League Two defeat at Cambridge.

A third-successive defeat left Crawley two points and just two places above the relegation zone.

For Cambridge, a fourth win in six home games saw them climb into the final play-off position after they scored three goals in a league game for the first time since January.

“The stats would suggest that we’re in the game, we’re alright, but we’re not,” Lindsey said afterwards. “We can’t defend in moments. We’re so easy to score against at the moment.

“The first goal’s just madness really. We’ve defended set-pieces really well in the past, it was something like we’d faced 82 set-pieces against us without a goal and then today, we just capitulated.

“The first one no one attacks it, it bounces and then we can’t deal with it, easy goal for them to score.

“Second goal – again a set-piece – (it) falls to the edge of the box, no one engages, easy goal.

“The third goal, I see my back three defending and no one else in the picture.

“We’re not hard-working enough at the moment, which is costing us. I’ve got to change it. We’re just weak.

“The character at the moment’s not coming through. I hear one player in the dressing room now and I need more.

“I see a team that’s lacking a bit of confidence at the moment. We think we talk a good game and prepare a good game and then we don’t really, we pretend to deliver it at the moment. It’s really hard to take and hard to watch.”

The U’s struck with the first chance of the game after 13 minutes as Shayne Lavery fired home from close range.

Their second arrived as a set-piece came off a defender and allowed Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu to drill home before Kylian Kouassi claimed a simple finish from close range.

Crawley pulled one back after 66 minutes when Harry McKirdy’s effort was stopped by Jake Eastwood before Kabongo Tshimanga forced the ball home.

Cambridge boss Neil Harris was pleased with how his side came out strongly after half-time, scoring twice before the hour to move 3-0 ahead.

“People might think I was happy at half-time because we were 1-0 up, playing at home and looking relatively comfortable, but I wasn’t,” said Harris. “The players knew I wasn’t.

“I thought it was important I told some truths.

“I thought it was also important, in my own manner, that I reminded them that four of the five games we’ve played here this season we’ve started the second half poorly.

“So I was very pleased that we came out like a steam train second half and really took the game away from Crawley.

“We have to find different ways to be creative, whether it’s counter-attacking football, set-play football, whether we dominate the ball or have a lot of players behind it, we’ve got to find different ways in a game.

“At the moment I’m pleased – with 18 points from 11 and eight from the last four – that we’re finding different ways.”