Paul Scholes relaxed after Salford held by Crawley

Posted Sunday, October 25, 2020 by PA

Paul Scholes had no complaints after being denied a second straight win as temporary Salford boss in a lively 1-1 draw with Crawley.

Former Manchester United striker James Wilson scored another stunner, his fourth in the last four home games giving Salford the lead, but Reds captain George Francomb grabbed a deserved equaliser after following up Sam Matthews’ parried effort.

Scholes has now lost, won and drawn in his three matches since the shock sacking of Graham Alexander.

“A draw was possibly a fair result in the end,” he said. “They came on strong in the last 20-25 minutes and we dropped off a bit.

“We have had a tough couple of weeks and perhaps we fell a little bit short today. I think at times we played well against a good side but that last bit of quality in the final third we were lacking, so it’s always disappointing when you don’t put teams away.”

Scholes again singled out striker Wilson for praise and said: “James Wilson played well again and scored another great goal for us. He is sharp and he is a match-winner for us.

“He’s not played loads of football but if he keeps on playing then we can get the rewards from that.

“I was disappointed with the goal we conceded. There were a couple of mistakes we should have cut out, but on balance they came back into the game well and deserved that.

“I thought Di’Shon Bernard did really well when he came on for his debut and it was a new experience for him. He did everything he needed to do.

“It’s another quick turnaround to Tuesday (at Scunthorpe) so we need to rest up and make sure we are ready to go again.”

Crawley boss John Yems was delighted with his side’s effort.

“We were absolutely fantastic,” he said.

“We went 1-0 down and you think ‘here we go again’, but the lads showed a lot of character to come back and then Salford were hanging on in the end.

“I’ve been in football a long time and I know never to be disappointed with a point. Yes, could have had three, but we could also have had nothing so we will take it and crack on.

“You don’t come to these places after what has happened this week and not have to work hard, so hopefully we can build on this, it is another learning curve and we earned something today.

“It was a good game of football which could have gone either way and it was played in the right spirit. If that was an advert for our division that’s great.”