View from the Press Box: Crawley Town lose 4-1 at Reading

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Crawley Town lost 4-1 at Reading in League One. Mark Dunford gives his view of the day from arriving at the Select Car Leasing Stadium to interviewing Roby Elliot and Bradley Ibrahim after the game.

Transcript

00:00Hi there, Mark Dunford here at the Select Car Leasing Stadium. I've just turned up

00:04at Reading for the 12.30 kickoff between Reading and Crawley Town and this is my

00:10view for the afternoon and it's not very high up. Dugouts down there. It'll be a really

00:19good game today. I'm looking for Crawley to get their first win under new manager

00:24Rob Elliott and their first win since they beat Cambridge away in August so a

00:29big game for Crawley. Reading struggling themselves in 17th. They've played 9-1-4,

00:35drawn 1, lost 4 whereas Crawley played 10-1-2, drawn 1, lost 7. So really looking

00:41for pick up three points today. Rob Elliott has been impressed with how

00:46Reading are playing this year. He thinks they've got dangers in attack on the

00:50wide men but believes they play a similar way to Crawley do. So Crawley

00:54we've seen some good signs from them recently with scoring goals but it's the

00:58defensive area where they need to improve and Rob Elliott told us this

01:01week that they've been working hard on set pieces which was a big weakness

01:05against Shrewsbury when they lost 5-3 last week. So fingers crossed Crawley can

01:09get three points today or get something out of the game. So here's the press area

01:14at Reading Football Club. Lots of seats. Obviously legacy from Premier League days.

01:22How you doing? Crawley players are here on the pitch having a look around with Rob Elliott.

01:30Jay Williams there, not in the matchday kit obviously because he is suspended

01:36after picking up five yellow cards. There's Tom Allman, Barry Munn. Crawley

01:43media guys. There's Sam, there's Ant, Gary and Ken down there.

01:51So yeah, looking forward to a good game.

01:56So here's the team news. We've got Max Anderson coming in, Jeremy Kelly coming

02:01in. Yeah, good to see Charlie Barker getting a start again. Needed after Josh

02:09Finn sending off but he's been playing really well Charlie Barker.

02:13So yeah, an interesting lineup. Hopefully they can do something against this

02:17Reading side who are 17th on the table.

02:34So yeah, I've got my food ready to go. Decent selection of sandwiches and wraps

02:39and cookies. So back to my seat and get ready for the game.

03:48So a 4-1 defeat for Crawley at Reading here. An immensely frustrating day. So many good

03:59elements to the play. Some really good start to the second half.

04:03But goal line clearances, good save by David Button in the Reading goal. But

04:08Crawley just weren't ruthless whereas Reading were. When they had their

04:11chances they took them. We felt Reading were there for the take in today and

04:16certainly after the first half. And Crawley just did not take advantage of

04:20their chances. So yeah, poor result, poor one. It'll be interesting to see what

04:24Rod Elliott has to say.

04:36Yeah, it does. I think, let's be honest with you, I'd rather have those stats. I haven't seen them

04:39clearly but I think we had 20 shots and 65% possession of that. The good thing is

04:43we're converting possession into chances. So that's a positive. I think

04:46that's definitely been a positive since I've come in. We need to be more clinical

04:50but we'll get better at that because the lads have taken on new information, still

04:53things need to get better at. But no, that's really positive. But obviously

04:57the biggest stat is the scoreline.

04:59Yeah, looking at the stats, Crawley absolutely dominated everything today from possession to chances and goals.

05:04It's just frustrating that you can't quite get over the line at the moment. What do you think it is?

05:08Is it just waiting for it to click?

05:10I feel like obviously a new manager, it just takes time. I think just us finding each other, just a little bit more

05:15composure in the final third. I think we're so close for it to finally gel,

05:19click like you said. Yeah, we're really close to it happening.

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