Crawley Town got exactly what they wanted out of their pre-season friendly with Dagenham and Redbridge, according to boss Scott Lindsey.
Reds scored five goals for the third consecutive game and end up 5-1 winners thanks to goals from Harry McKirdy, Harry Forster, Reece Brown and two from a 16-year-pold trialist.
The only blip came when Harvey Davies was dispossessed after a Charlie Barker back pass and Joe Haigh scored for the Daggers. Reds’ defence had to face 30 minutes of former Liverpool and West Ham striker Andy Carroll on his debut for the home side, but they coped well against him.
But Lindsey was delighted with the way his team performed. “We got out of it what we wanted,” he said. “Obviously we stepped up in terms of opposition. It was a tough challenge. We wanted to cover a certain amount of distance and we've done that. Players who came on are topping up their runs now as we speak so they'll get the similar distance to what the boys who started.
Crawley Town boss Scott Lindsey at Dagenham and Redbridge | Picture: CTFCplaceholder image
Crawley Town boss Scott Lindsey at Dagenham and Redbridge | Picture: CTFC
“So another box ticked there and we scored five good goals and really pleased with that and we are showing good signs at the moment.”
It was a physical encounter and Reds were superb with the press and gave Daggers no time to rest.
"I thought our tempo was really electric tonight,” said Lindsey. “I thought we were really quick and even the second goal you could see the ball goes out of play, Gav [Holohan] picks it up and throws it.
"They switch off for that moment. We're still switched on and it's stuff like that that I want to encourage this year, to play at a tempo that oppositions can't cope with us. I thought we controlled it and I was really pleased with some of the play was really good today and some individual performances as well so I'm really pleased.”
Lindsey started with Jay Williams and Louie Watson for the first time this pre-season but they were substituted after just 20 minutes. Reds fans then saw seven changes after 65 minutes as an almsot completely different side finished the game.
Lindsey said: “We kind of knew what we wanted to do. We made the changes on 65 minutes but we also made two changes on 20 minutes. We knew that Jay and Louis Watson could only play 20 minutes tonight and rather than make them wait for their 20 minutes, we thought it might be beneficial to warm them up, start the game and then bring them off after 20.
"So we planned that tonight and planned the changes on 65 minutes and then you saw the two younger boys come on with about 20 minutes to go as well. One of which got two goals. I've got to say he's been amazing. He's 16 years of age and he's played in a couple of the games now and he's looked great. So I’m really pleased with everybody tonight. I thought everyone who came on impacted the game well and the boys who started did really well as well.”
Reds are back in action against Portsmouth on Saturday.
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