Crawley Town skipper Ben Gladwin after the 3-0 win against Sutton United

SussexWorld

Crawley Town beat Sutton United 3-0 to go joint top of League Two. Here is skipper Ben Gladwin with his thoughts on the game

Transcript

00:00 How do you reflect on the win today?

00:06 Good, good. I think in periods we've made it tough for ourselves, which we seem to do

00:10 a little bit at the minute, but it's a young group growing and learning constantly. So

00:14 that's to be expected, bumps in the road, but on the whole, great performance.

00:20 You kept a clean sheet, it's only the second clean sheet of the year, how pleasing is that?

00:25 It's a big point for us at the minute, we spoke about that a lot before the game, especially

00:32 in the dressing room today, because we know we score goals, we've proved that a lot. So

00:38 we give ourselves a really good chance if we keep clean sheets. So we're going to keep

00:43 working away on that as a team, not just defensively, the back unit, but as a team.

00:50 What sort of parallels were Sutton aware of when you joined the club last year? They seemed

00:58 to play really well, do you think there's any hope for Sutton going forward?

01:03 Of course, it's still so early on, and like I said, for 20-25 minutes they've done what

01:09 they've done so effectively. I think maybe we slipped off slightly, but as well you have

01:15 to give them credit in the game, because they changed what they did and they figured out

01:19 what we were doing, and they made it very, very hard for us in periods. Like you said

01:24 when I joined last season, it's a tough place to be, confidence isn't high, people aren't

01:30 feeling great around a place. But of course, it's still early, very early.

01:35 But now you're joint top of the league, that's quite an incredible achievement considering

01:40 what people were saying at the beginning of the season, wasn't it?

01:43 It's nice, but I said afterwards and the manager will keep saying, just keep every game, take

01:50 each game as it comes, and keep ticking them off because we know what we're capable of

01:54 in the building and we're not getting carried away at all. We will keep performing, keep

01:59 going after good performances and just see where it takes us.

02:02 Yes, and a lovely assist for you today, some great goals again, you're playing some lovely

02:07 stuff. Can that continue as you go forward?

02:10 Absolutely, the group of staff put so much hard work in, they work relentlessly. So that's

02:17 just a product of what they put in throughout the week. And the players are so hungry to

02:21 learn constantly, it's such a great group of players. The recruitment's been great,

02:25 the guys they've brought in. So it's a pleasure to be part of.

02:28 Yes, I feel thankful for that.

02:31 Me? Okay. Ben, congratulations on today's win. Three points, three goals, clean sheet,

02:39 one top of the table. I'm sure the dressing room must be a relatively happy place at the

02:42 moment.

02:43 Yes, to be completely honest with you, we don't get incredibly high or low though. So

02:48 we sort of do go after performance. So for example, after the Swindon game, don't be

02:53 wrong, it was a big chance for us to learn, but we weren't incredibly low on the Monday

02:58 morning. We know we just needed to fix a few bits and then the same will be here. It's

03:01 a great win, but we'll go after what we've done well, what we didn't, and we'll learn

03:06 from it and then try and put a good performance in on Tuesday.

03:10 You got the early goal in the first half with a wonderful assist from you and Adam Campbell

03:14 swept it in first time for a wonderful goal. Then Sutton worked their way back into the

03:18 game and they had two goals disallowed before the break. What was said at half-time to change

03:23 things around in the second half?

03:25 Like I said, I think it's easy sometimes to say we've come off it a little bit or credit

03:34 to them because they'd figured out what we were doing quite well, I thought, and maybe

03:38 we did drop our level a little bit. But just more of the same, more courage probably, take

03:44 the ball again, don't just look to clear the ball, take the ball in the tight areas, keep

03:50 doing what we are good at and what we believe in. And they can only do it for so long. They

03:57 can only go crazy for another 10, 15 minutes, which probably turned out to be true. They

04:03 gave it a good go early on in the second half, but we took the legs away from them.

04:08 How proud are you to be the skipper of this side at the moment, Ben, given what the club

04:13 went through last season? I know you were skipper last season and led the side to safety,

04:17 but you must be immensely proud of what the club are doing under your charge at the moment.

04:22 Yes, it's a pleasure to be a part of it, it really is. Like I said, the staff deserve

04:28 so much credit because the work they put in is not something I've seen loads and loads

04:32 in professional football. They really care and the recruitment was amazing. I think the

04:38 characters that you have in the building are everything. Forget about ability, if they're

04:42 not the right characters, it's not easy. So we're lucky that we've got really good characters

04:47 and good players and we've a good set of staff. So it's a pleasure to be a part of and I think

04:52 it's something that we can create a special season.

04:55 You talked just a moment ago about that defeat at Swindon towards the end of August. You've

04:58 now gone the whole of September unbeaten in all competitions, scoring goal after goal

05:03 after goal. The resilience and the way the side have come back after that defeat in Swindon

05:08 is really second to none as well.

05:10 Yes, I think at the time it's obviously so painful, but we have a really young group

05:17 and there are going to be bumps in the road. Those setbacks are going to happen and I'm

05:21 sure it will happen again, hopefully never that heavily. But there will be bumps in the

05:26 road again and we will learn from them, that's what the manager asks for. When we win, when

05:32 we lose, when the performance is good or bad, we learn constantly. So we will continue to

05:38 do that and yes, great reaction to that result.

05:42 And on to Tuesday night, the next game, they come thick and fast at this stage of the season.

05:45 It's another long journey to make mid-week, but like I said to Scott, you'll go there

05:49 with a huge amount of confidence. You've now got the first win on the road at Grimsby last

05:52 week, you surely won't go there with confidence any higher at any stage of the season?

05:57 No, I think that's probably been the one challenge, to be honest. As one of the older heads and

06:01 the captain along with the staff, it's really convincing this group that we're a good team,

06:08 especially after last season. I know we've had a lot of changes in the group, but just

06:13 the feeling around the club and within the dressing room is like, forget that last season.

06:18 I know it hurt a lot, but forget that. We're trying to do something very special and we're

06:22 a good team. So we have to go into every game now believing that.

06:27 All of us in the press box today, and I was sitting here talking about it as well before

06:30 you came in, we're all looking forward to next Saturday when the circus of Wrexham comes

06:35 to town and the entertainment and the potential goals that that may well bring.

06:39 Yes, they seem to be involved in games with a lot of goals. Hopefully not too many for

06:45 them next week, but it'll be a great occasion. I'm sure for everybody outside of the changing

06:51 room it will be maybe different, but for us we need to approach it exactly the same. Go

06:55 through what we go through during the week. Most importantly, we look after business Tuesday

07:00 and we just follow the same process, keep ticking the games off, trying to go after

07:06 good performances first and foremost, and I'm sure results will follow.

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