Defender Mark Connolly was delighted to open his Crawley goal account in today’s 3-0 defeat of Colchester - but insisted the clean sheet was more pleasing.
The win saw Crawley record a first league One shut-out since their last win at the Broadfield Stadium, against MK Dons two months ago. And Connolly, who netted the first of the Reds’ three goals from close range, said: “The biggest thing was the clean sheet. I spoke to the other defenders after the game, and we didn’t even mention the goal, it was all about the clean sheet.”
Reds’ assistant manager Anthony Williams praised a good all-round team performance after the win which keeps Crawley eighth in League One, just a point off the play-offs.
He said: “We stuck in there, the lads worked hard and got their rewards. It was a good team performance and it was nice to get back to winning ways. The pleasing thing is that we looked solid and did not look like conceding.”
And Williams saluted the young centre back pairing of Connolly and Joe Walsh. He added: “As a young player you need a run of games, there will be times when you go through a dip. Mark maybe had a little dip earlier in the season but is full of confidence now.
Both he and Joe have proved they are good enough at this level.”