'I understand the frustration' says Crawley Town defender Joel Lynch following Stevenage defeat

“I understand the fans frustration,” said Lynch having watched his side from the stands since July. “I think last season with the owners coming in, everyone thought that there was going to be these vast improvements where everything was going to change. But it’s football at he end of the day. It doesn’t just happen overnight. I know it must be frustrating because it’s been frustrating watching it myself. They’re my mates out there and I can see they’ve been trying to do the right things, but it just hasn’t clicked for us.”

Crawley have won some big matches this season against the likes of Fulham, Bristol Rovers and Portsmouth in the cup competitions. However, in the league, one win from 11 opening games has left the fans wondering where the team is going wrong. Stevenage opened the game on Saturday with a superb strike off the cross bar from Jordan Roberts in the 23rd minute. Despite Ashley Nadesan then equalising for Crawley, Luke Norris’ penalty won the game for the away side with only five minutes to go. They scored a really good goal,” said Lynch on Roberts’ opener. “A goal I don’t think they’ll score like that again, especially in the way the set it up.”

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Nick Tsaroulla, a Crawley fan favourite was caught short in the 85th minute after his arm blocked an on-target Stevenage header. With the referee then pointing to the spot, Lynch said, “I don’t think the referee should’ve given them the penalty when we had that happen to us in the first half. But we can’t keep saying we were unlucky. We need to improve, and the lads know that. I felt we dominated at times, but we needed to see it out in the end and that was and has been our problem. It’s a slight improvement but we need to kick on and start getting some results.”

Many of Crawley’s losses this season have come from tight games that unluckily saw decisions go against them. However, as an experienced professional, Lync thinks otherwise.

“We can’t keep going off fine margins,” said Lynch. “It’s League Two. The teams that succeed, the best teams like Stevenage are good at what they do, and they do their job. There needs to be improvement for us and steadily it will come with confidence, but we aren’t anywhere near it now. I think it’ll start picking up towards the end of the season.”

In his first game back, Lynch put in a good performance for the Reds but was understandably eventually substituted. On making his return, Lynch said, “I didn’t feel the best to be honest. Over the next few weeks, I’ll have to work to get back to proper match fitness. Then I think I can really help the team out. I was ready to return but it was more about getting minutes really. Personally, I did okay, but at the end of the day we lost and very disappointing.”

Crawley Town now have another full week to rest and prepare for an away trip to Grimsby Town. With the club in one of its hardest moments for a long time, the fans will hope the Reds can restore hope next Saturday. “This is a good club with good people and a good dressing room. We’re all trying to do the right things and we’ll get it eventually.”