Curle rues Northampton’s defending following heavy defeat at Crawley - 7M sport

Curle rues Northampton’s defending following heavy defeat at Crawley



Posted Friday, December 27, 2019 by PA

Curle rues Northampton’s defending following heavy defeat at Crawley

Northampton boss Keith Curle rued his side’s defensive performance after they crashed to a 4-0 defeat at Crawley to slip out of the play-off positions.

The match, which survived a 2pm pitch inspection, ended particularly badly for the Cobblers, with substitute Shaun McWilliams and Harry Smith both being stretchered off in stoppage time.

McWillliams suffered a knee injury and striker Smith was taken to hospital after damaging his ankle.

Nathan Ferguson drove Crawley ahead in the first half and, after Bez Lubala had doubled the lead in the 62nd minute, Ollie Palmer and substitute Mason Bloomfield added late goals to give Crawley their biggest league win of the season.

Curle was left dismayed at his side’s defending and said: “We didn’t do what we are good at.

“We were not doing basic defending in keeping the man in front of you and goal-side.”

Curle, whose side had only lost one of their previous nine league games, said the result was a surprise and added: “We looked fragmented.

“It was a game that didn’t suit us, but we are back at home next and we are confident when we know what we are doing.”

New Crawley head coach John Yems felt his side’s comfortable victory was a “start” as he celebrated his first win in four attempts.

The Reds had only won one league game since mid-September and Yems admitted: “You could feel the relief to get this win.”

Yems, 60, has only got the job until the end of the season having replaced Gabriele Cioffi but is already looking further ahead.

He added: “Hopefully the crowd will be back in numbers. Hopefully I’ll get the opportunity to take the club forward.

“Hopefully this is a start and we have sent out a message that teams will need to work twice as hard in games against Crawley.

“It is down to hard work and today we got the benefits. It is a start but we are not getting carried away; there are no easy sides in this division.”

Asked if this was a sign of what Crawley can do, Yems replied: “I won’t look at the table until April, but in the last four games we have had three clean sheets and let in only two goals.”

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