John Yems lauds Crawley character after late win at Bradford

Posted Sunday, January 30, 2022 by PA

Boss John Yems praised Crawley’s second-half character as they came from behind to win 2-1 at Bradford.

The visitors left it late to clinch victory when captain Tony Craig headed home in stoppage time.

In a game of three headers, Tom Nichols had equalised for Crawley after Andy Cook’s 10th goal of the season gave Bradford the advantage at half-time.

Yems said: “When we started off, I thought it was going to be one of those games and we’d come all this way for nothing.

“George Francomb pulls out in the warm-up, Joel Lynch comes off and we give another messy goal away.

“But second half, credit to Lee [Bradbury], myself and the coaching staff, we changed the shape about a little bit and got amongst them.

“We’ve got quality players in our squad but you’ve got to have the determination to win games and we didn’t in the first half when we looked disjointed.

“Second half we did really well and I think we deserved it in the end. We were a different team.”

Bradford had dominated the first half and went ahead when Cook finished off a fine team move, converting a cross from Charles Vernam.

Crawley’s experienced goalkeeper Glenn Morris prevented Cook scoring again with a reaction save from close range.

Crawley improved with the arrival of former Bradford winger Mark Marshall from the bench and he crossed for Nichols to level.

Yems added: “Marshy has been pulling at the leash because he used to play here and he deserves it. He’s a lovely kid.

“Nichols rose like a salmon but last couple of weeks he’s still been in the tin.”

Craig then completed their comeback as he converted a free-kick from Jack Powell in the fifth minute of time added on.

Bradford manager Derek Adams was unhappy with the manner of both goals.

He said: “They were two long balls into the box. Finn Cousin-Dawson doesn’t deal with the first one and Niall Canavan doesn’t deal with the second.

“We should have put the game to bed. We needed a second goal and had opportunities.

“We controlled the game for large periods. We played really well in the first half, got a very good goal and should have gone on to score more.

“Into that second half, Crawley came out the better team and started well. We then had another big opportunity when a great save from Andy Cook doesn’t allow us to go 2-0 up.

“Not to deal with two balls into the box, 20-30 yards on the diagonal, is really poor of us.

“Crawley didn’t really open us up and create many chances. The goals were shocking to lose so late in the game.”