Neil Wood demands major improvement from Salford after Crawley draw

Salford boss Neil Wood said his side need to be “miles better” following their 1-1 draw at home to Crawley.

The hosts trailed at the break due to Luke Garbutt’s own goal, but Conor McAleny’s early second-half strike earned them a point.

Salford, who averaged the most possession in League Two last season, had only 39 percent of the ball in the first half and Wood was less than impressed.

He said: “I thought first half we weren’t good enough, we weren’t at our best.

“We were too passive and we let them play too much.

“Second half we started strong, we got a bit of a grip on the game and they died off a little bit with the high press.

“We had some good momentum in periods of the second half – an improvement but we’ve got to be miles better.

“We knew they were going to come with a high press, an all-action team. You need quality on the ball to play over it or play round it and we weren’t good enough at doing that in the first half. We were too far off them.

“The whole first half needs to be better by a million miles. Second half still wasn’t where we need to be. The standards we set ourselves we were way below that today but we’ll get better.”

Crawley manager Scott Lindsay was disappointed not to come away with a win, considering how well his team played, especially in the first half.

After battling relegation last season, Crawley have picked up four points from their opening two games, but Lindsey believes it should be six out of six.

He said: “Two points dropped in the game in my opinion. I thought we were outstanding in the first half, only one team in it and I don’t know how we didn’t score more goals. We had enough chances to win two games of football today.

“We were outstanding in the way we pressed, the way we had possession. Second half they changed as we knew they would, going from a back three to a back four, which meant we had one player less to press, but we had good solid numbers behind the ball.

“Me and the players are so disappointed to come to Salford and get a draw. I expect to come here and win with what I’ve got in that dressing room, especially the way we played. I want to drive those standards throughout the whole football club.

“We’re playing good football and we’re creating a lot of chances.”