Crawley Town boss Scott Lindsey 'so proud' after historic win at MK Dons

SussexWorld

Crawley Town beat MK Dons 5-1 (8-1 on aggregate) in the League Two play-off semi-final to reach Wembley for the first time in the club's history. Here is manager Scott Lindsey's post-match interview.

Transcript

00:00 Right Scott, what a night here at MK Dons, how are you feeling right now?

00:06 Yeah, incredibly proud, unbelievable feeling to take such a wonderful football club to

00:13 Wembley for the first time. I'm really proud of everybody who's been involved in the work

00:18 that's gone in to get to this stage, it's just incredible. I'm really, really proud.

00:25 We were backed to go down, we've proved a lot of people wrong and I want to thank everybody

00:34 for not backing us, I want to thank everybody for that because it's fuelled me and the players,

00:41 so thanks for that. But we're not there yet, we've got it all to do and we will still remain

00:48 really humble and we will still remain really focused and professional. As much as we want

00:52 to enjoy tonight, which we will, but there's no point getting to Wembley if you're not

00:58 going to win, right? So we're really focused on that.

01:02 You can't have asked for much more from your players, over the two legs, but tonight particularly.

01:06 Just incredible, we were incredible tonight. Some unbelievable goals, we were aggressive

01:11 on the press. I think it was the right thing to do, we could have come here and sat in

01:16 and banked in, it's not me. I'll never change from what I am as a coach, I always want to

01:20 go after a team and press and play our possession. Some of those passages towards the end of

01:26 the game were just not of this level. And to say that it's done by players from non-league

01:32 and not wanted by their clubs last year, or players who got relegated last year, just

01:40 incredible.

01:42 The third goal must have been particularly pleasing, Morse's second goal with a long

01:48 loss to Kelly, that sunned up your team, didn't it?

01:51 Yes, just an unbelievable passage. But all the goals were great. The first goal I was

01:55 pleased with because we pressed, we wanted to be really aggressive in terms of how we

01:58 pressed. We knew that they wouldn't change a lot, and they didn't, but they did second

02:03 half, they put two forwards on, so we had to change slightly and adjust. We had to make

02:10 sure that our wing-backs didn't jump to their outside centre-halves, so wing-backs stayed

02:13 down the rail with their wing-backs, and our number 10s had to jump. We had a plus one

02:17 at the back, which made us a little bit more secure actually. But the players were just

02:23 unbelievable. Honestly, I'm so proud of everyone. Every single person in that dressing room

02:28 has been brilliant.

02:29 And you must have been proud of that.

02:30 Oh wow, they're just unreal. Just unbelievable. I haven't got any words for it.

02:40 You're quite emotional, Scott, right now.

02:42 I haven't got any words for them fans. They're just incredible.

02:46 And now Wembley. It's an incredible achievement. A lot of hard work going in this week. I mean,

02:52 the crew, you won't have a chance to meticulously look at them like I know you do, but what

02:57 are your initial thoughts about that game?

02:59 I don't know yet, because I've just had all my focus on tonight. I need to go home tomorrow

03:08 and watch the crew in real detail and try and pick the bones out of what we feel is

03:14 best to do. We don't change loads anyway, but we might need to look at a few bits about

03:20 what they do. Just get ready and prepared. Nothing changes really about our preparation.

03:24 We're really meticulous anyway, so just because it's at Wembley, it's not going to be any

03:29 different. We do that anyway.

03:31 And we've had just quickly on Harry and Will, any worries about them?

03:35 Yeah, it's probably too early to say at the moment. Maybe too early to say.

03:42 Fair enough. Thanks, Scott. Well done.

03:44 A word on your striker, Hattrick, in such an important game.

03:48 Just an unbelievable story really, because when he came into the Football League, he

03:54 played for Harrogate and Grimsby. I think he scored five goals in two seasons. I've

03:59 got to give credit to the owners as well, because they're big on their data. They found

04:05 that his XG was really high, his touches in the box were really high, so he was doing

04:09 everything right apart from putting the ball in the net. We felt that there's a player

04:15 there that no other manager would probably sign, because he scored five goals in two

04:19 seasons. No other manager would probably come anywhere near him. But we went a little bit

04:24 deeper and felt that if his XG is high, he's obviously doing something right. He's getting

04:28 in the right positions. He just needs to be coached how to put the ball in the net.

04:32 We signed him and worked really hard with him on the training ground. I don't know how

04:36 many goals he's scored now. Is it 25, something like 24? Something ridiculous, you know?

04:41 Great lad, love him to death. Unbelievable character, absolute winner. I absolutely love

04:49 working with him.

04:50 When was the last time you went to Wembley? Have you been there as a spectator?

04:54 No, the last time I was at Wembley was 2017. I was the assistant manager for Forest Green

05:00 Rovers and we won promotion into the Football League from the National League, beat Trammey.

05:04 So that was my last visit to Wembley, so a few years back now.

05:09 So no nerves for you then next Sunday?

05:12 Yes, next Sunday. No, I never feel any nerves. It's my job. We just work extremely hard to

05:20 get detail into the players and we coach the team. And then we go and try and win the game.

Category

Transcript

Recommended