Lewis Young highlights Crawley’s progress under John Yems after home loss

Posted Sunday, May 01, 2022 by PA

Acting Crawley head coach Lewis Young admitted he could understand the support for John Yems from fans after a third successive defeat since the 62-year-old’s suspension – 2-0 at home to Leyton Orient.

Yems was suspended on April 22 by Crawley pending an investigation over serious allegations.

The FA are looking into accusations of racist language by Yems towards several of the club’s players this season, with a group of Crawley players raising issues regarding Yems’ conduct and alleged use of offensive language.

Reds fans made their feelings clear throughout the whole game with chants of”We want our Yems back” and Young felt this was understandable considering Crawley have improved in his two-and-a-half years at the club.

Young said: ”The club has been on an upward trend since John has come in and if we beat Oldham in our last game we would have bettered our points tally of last season.”

Goals in each half from Theo Archibald and Aaron Drinan ended Crawley’s run of four successive home wins, and a smoke bomb had to be cleared late in stoppage time as fans chanted support for Yems.

“As far as I know the investigation is still going on,” said Young. “Whatever conversations I have had with John in this time will remain private.”

Former Reds defender Young, 32, was furious that Crawley were denied an equaliser in the first minute of stoppage time when a shot from James Tilley appeared to cross the line after hitting the underside of the bar.

Young added: “Tilley’s goal was two yards over the line. Everyone bar four people in the ground could see it was over the line.”

Orient head coach Richie Wellens believes his side are starting to develop a winning mentality after claiming a third win in the last four away games.

The former Oldham, Swindon, Salford and Doncaster boss said: ”Earlier this season losing became a habit but now we are believing we can win games.”

The O’s have lost only three of their last 14 matches since the start of March and Wellens added: ”We’ve got a lot of good things going for us; we don’t roll over for anyone.

“This was a game we deserved to win; we should have scored six or seven in the first half but after that we made it difficult for ourselves.”

Wellens, who took over in early March, believes he has a “decent sized squad” and is planning to bring in three or four players “with the quality needed to take us forward.”

He added: ”I am keen to develop the club and use this time to give fans belief that we can achieve something next year.”