Harry Kewell: Doing the ugly things well guided us to victory

Posted Wednesday, October 03, 2018 by PA

Notts County boss Harry Kewell claimed his side did the ‘ugly’ things well as he saw them record a 3-1 win over his old side Crawley.

Kewell left the Red Devils at the end of August to take over from Kevin Nolan at Meadow Lane and victory against his former employers saw the Magpies stretch their unbeaten run to four games and move up to 20th in the table.

Kane Hemmings and Jon Stead had Notts 2-0 up at half-time and although their on-loan Crawley midfielder Rob Milsom saw red after 66 minutes, for a crude lunge on Joe Maguire, Nathan Thomas added a third with a brilliant free-kick, with Dominic Poleon replying in injury-time for his first Crawley goal.

“I am very happy with the result, but I am more happy with the performance,” said Kewell. “We did well tonight and did the ugly side of football and got our rewards.

“We stuck in there at moments when the tide was turning, but then we pounced, We looked compact, we looked steady. I am happy we are creating chances and happy we are heading in the right direction.”

On beating his old side, he added: “It’s interesting, it’s exciting. Of course you want to win it, but you want to win every game. I knew what qualities they had, they’ve got some fantastic players. We put together a good squad there.

“He (Cioffi) threw us a curve ball by playing there players that haven’t really been featured, so that was surprising. But I’m not worried about them anymore, it’s all about Notts now.”

Gabriele Cioffi was not happy with the result, but was satisfied with the performance of his Crawley players, especially in the second half as they tried to claw their way back into the match.

“We conceded two silly goals, one from a thrown-in and another from a long ball from the keeper,” reflected Cioffi. “And then the game was uphill from there. After half an hour, the game was almost closed.

“I liked the reaction in the second half, we put pressure on them and that’s what we had to do in the first half. We have to improve, we have to work harder, but we are not scared of this.

“I think we played better football and showed more personality than we did from the last game. Tonight we learned a lot. When you jump on a moving train, you have to add slowly, slowly, slowly. I am really happy how the lads behaved during the week and how they followed my philosophy.

“I am sorry for the fans who travelled, not because of the performance, but because of the silly mistakes. We want them on our side.”

Cioffi was pleased to see Poleon finally off the mark for Crawley, adding: “It was important for him and we are happy for him, but hopefully he will start to score some winning goals.”