Crawley Town striker Danilo Orsi looks ahead to the League Two play-off semi-final against MK Dons

SussexWorld

Crawley Town host MK Dons in the first leg of the League Two play-off semi-final on Monday, May 6. We spoke to striker Danilo Orsi about his season and how excited for the play-off games he is. Here is his press conference in full

Transcript

00:00 Dan, how excited are you at this moment in time, ready for the first ever Crawley Town

00:05 play-off game this weekend?

00:06 Yes, really excited, really looking forward to it. It's obviously a great achievement

00:09 for the club and for us as players and management staff to be in this position. So we want to

00:13 go into it, give it our all and see what can happen.

00:16 Yes, and MK Don's obviously a tough game. Scott was saying that very similar playing

00:20 styles. Have you been looking at them much or do you just leave that to the manager and

00:24 just do your job?

00:25 Yes, I think we knew from when we played them just after Christmas I believe it was what

00:28 an exciting game of football that was and kind of the two styles match up. So I think

00:33 as far as play-off semi-finals can go, I think the fans are in for a real treat with this

00:36 one.

00:37 And your goal of the season contender was against MK Don's here. You're hoping to recreate

00:42 that in front of the fans on Monday I suppose?

00:44 Yes, definitely. I don't quite know how it snicked into goal of the season it was because

00:47 there were some real good ones but I'm guessing it was because of the team build-up for it.

00:51 But yes, that was my first of the season so hopefully I can get another one tonight, well

00:55 not tonight but in a few days against them and add to the tally.

00:58 You have played more minutes this season than any other, so how are you managing the workload?

01:14 Yes, just trying my best off the pitch to keep myself in the best possible shape. Ricky

01:19 and the physio team have done a really good job with a lot of the boys this year, keeping

01:22 everyone fit. And I think it's just about managing the workload during the week which

01:26 the gaffer is really big on and making sure I'm doing everything right my side to be able

01:30 to get out on the pitch as much as possible and put in as many good performances as possible.

01:36 How do you reflect on your season personally, given that you are the club's top goalscorer?

01:41 Yes, personally it's been a fantastic season for me. I'm really proud of what I've achieved

01:45 this year but I'm not quite done yet and there's more games to go and hopefully more goals.

01:50 But if we can top it off with getting through this next stage and a trip to Wembley it will

01:53 be fantastic for everyone involved.

01:56 How have the fans helped you and your team-mates this evening?

02:05 Yes, the fans have been fantastic. I think I said it the other night on Twitter and Instagram,

02:09 they've stuck with us through when we've been doing really well at the start of the season

02:12 and then we had a little bit of dip in form and they travelled up and down the country

02:16 backing us and they never really got on top of us, it was just continued support throughout.

02:20 Even if we lost the game they still saw we were trying to do things the right way. So

02:23 for us to give them this chance to come and support us in a play-off game is fantastic

02:27 for them and fantastic for us to have them behind us.

02:29 Your manager just now he heaped a lot of praise on you saying you're a great hard worker and

02:36 a fantastic player. How has he and the backroom staff helped you improve as a player this season?

02:43 Yes, they've been fantastic for me. They don't put any pressure on me to score goals which

02:48 is the main thing. I've done a lot of work with Karl Larriman, not only him but the rest

02:51 of them. The attention to detail, the gaffer goes into it on a week-in, week-out basis,

02:56 it's unbelievable. Everyone knows exactly what they've got to do and when they've got

03:00 to do it. So when we go out onto the pitch there's no real surprises and it's a credit

03:04 to him. You can see by the way we're playing and the style we're playing, it's his philosophy

03:09 and he's got it across to us and we're doing what he wants us to do out on the pitch.

03:12 Thank you.

03:13 Cheers mate.

03:14 I'm picking up on that point, how does he go about it? How does the management team

03:18 go about it? Is it trust? He talked about love. How has he got the best out of players

03:23 like you this season?

03:24 Yes, I think there's been a real good understanding of what he expects from us as players and

03:28 what we can expect of him on a weekly basis. He's really great around the place and the

03:34 whole management staff are. There's a real good atmosphere and there's a real belief

03:38 and no matter when there were results which weren't going our way, they kept saying 'Believe,

03:44 you boys are good enough, you're a great team' and I think it probably took us a bit of time

03:48 to realise how good we possibly are at times. I think this last 12-15 game run we've had

03:56 has shown that we've got the belief in ourselves now and hopefully we can kick on again.

04:00 You talk about that rebuilding in the summer, players arriving, like you did. How long did

04:06 that take and when do you really start to feel the manager's ideas working?

04:12 I think that was one of the biggest points, it was straight in on my first day here, this

04:17 is what I want to do, this is how we're playing. There's nothing else, we're not going to invite

04:21 any other way. So there's a real clear plan. So there's nothing really to get confused

04:27 on and then each day in pre-season he kind of drilled home the points and fed it into

04:32 us slowly but made sure everyone was on the same page and knew exactly what to expect.

04:37 So it took a bit of time over pre-season when we started playing and then I think you can

04:41 see from when we started the first seven games in, we really played some good football and

04:45 got some good results against some big teams. So I think that kind of gave everyone the

04:48 belief then to know we're not going to be relegation battlers shall we say and we could

04:53 do something special this year, which I think we've done.

04:55 In a mixture of league and non-league players, players being given a second, third chance,

05:00 did that create a special atmosphere and what was that atmosphere in the dressing room?

05:04 Yeah I think a lot of the non-league was like myself, where you've come up from non-league

05:07 into the league, you kind of want to prove yourself and you're very hard-working and

05:11 down-to-earth individuals and I think that's kind of been one of the key things about this

05:14 group of boys is there's no egos, everyone's quite humble and everyone wants to work hard

05:18 and improve every day. So when you have that sort of mentality in the team and you're coming

05:22 into training every day, the levels are high and Gaffer can really work on what he wants

05:26 to work on with us because we're all going to follow his directions and execute a game plan.

05:31 So taking that attitude into a play-off, two-legged semi-final, is there a chance it'll be too

05:37 much or do you feel perhaps very level-headed about it for those reasons?

05:41 Yeah I think like we've said all season, we know what sort of team we are and I think

05:45 all the pressure is on MK in these two games, they're the team which everyone expects to

05:49 go up. Again we were expected to be in a relegation fight and expected to go down so anything

05:54 from here for the club I guess you could say is a bonus and on their half they're going

05:59 to have to be dealing with all the pressure.

06:01 It's a dream for you as the players, it's a dream for the fans as well, they want to

06:04 get away with it for the first time ever, they want to be in League One again. You and

06:08 Feed the Orbs and all that, what's your relationship with the fans and how's that grown?

06:12 No the fans have been fantastic with me this year and it's kind of really pushed me on

06:15 and helped me settle in quite quickly. The song was pretty much created I think after

06:21 the first couple of games so hearing that fills me with a sense of pride and kind of

06:25 wants me to give back to them all the support and give them something to cheer about.

06:29 Finally how important are they going to be on Monday and then in the second leg?

06:33 Yeah massive, you can see in the last couple of days the queue's outside the stadium for

06:36 the home game and I'm sure we'll take a full house to the away game so they've got to get

06:41 behind us and enjoy it as much as we're going to enjoy it out on the pitch.

06:44 Thank you.

06:46 The manager was almost gushing about you earlier saying about all the stuff that you do off

06:52 the pitch as well but he didn't go into detail so what are you doing off the pitch to prepare

06:58 for this game with the other members of the team? I'm told you've got a good bond, you

07:01 turn up at the keeper so what are you doing?

07:04 I think it's just making sure we're in the best possible position, whether that's extra

07:08 gym sessions, seeing the physios for extra massages and kind of just taking care of yourself

07:13 away from everyday in the stadium and at the training ground. It's a massive opportunity

07:19 so we've really got to make sure we go above and beyond to make sure we're in the best

07:23 possible position for when three o'clock comes Monday.

07:26 You said yourself you came here with maybe not too much expectation, here you are in

07:31 the play-offs, do you feel like a different player?

07:34 Yeah, definitely. I think playing a lot of games this year and I think as a group, everyone

07:39 saying we're going to be in the relegation thing I think probably gave us a bit of an

07:44 added motivation to really kick on and now we're in this position I don't think anyone's

07:50 really too critical of us anymore because we've proved them all wrong. For us as a group

07:54 of boys we want to go out and hopefully finish this story on a high.

07:58 I know there's two games before you get there, I know that's what you're going to say but

08:02 have you started to dream? I mean, considering where you were last year, do you ever think

08:06 that a couple of weeks time you could be in Wembley?

08:08 Yeah, I'll be honest, I started dreaming about Wembley probably seven games into the

08:12 season. Yeah, I won't lie about it. I know most people say it's about the next one and

08:17 stuff but again like Gaffer said to us earlier on, he said he wanted us to talk about play-offs,

08:21 he wanted us to talk about being in there and that was with ten games left. I know me

08:25 and Ronan Darcy always used to joke about it back in September probably like we're

08:29 going to be at Wembley or we're going to get promoted here. So, I kind of had a bit of

08:32 a running joke going on and now, like you said, we're 180 minutes away from possibly

08:37 being there so yeah, we're looking forward to it.

08:39 Dan, personally you've had a great season but how important is Monday, how important

08:47 are these play-offs to how you'll remember this season?

08:51 Yeah, massively. I think like Gaffer's been saying to us, there's no point getting into

08:54 the play-offs if you aren't going to go and win them. So, we know how big Monday is because

08:58 it's the first game and it could really set up for the second one whether you're behind

09:03 or in front and kind of put you in a good position going into it. So, don't get me wrong,

09:07 we know how big of a game it is but we want to go out there and play the football we've

09:10 been playing all season and hopefully come away with a positive result.

09:12 And finally, you've mentioned how great the fans have been but what part can they play

09:17 on Monday in trying to help you? What's your sort of message to the fans?

09:21 Yeah, I think just get behind us, make an atmosphere, almost intimidate them coming

09:25 here. You talk about it's a smaller stadium compared to MK so it's going to be a sell-out.

09:29 We can really get a bit of a fear factor into them possibly with our fans and how loud they've

09:34 been all season. Just enjoy it, enjoy the game, enjoy the occasion.

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