BITTERLY disappointed Crawley players and management admitted a late error cost them the win at Plymouth Argyle today.
The Reds had looked on course for a return to the top of League 2 after Pablo Mills’ first half header had given Steve Evans’ men a 1-0 lead. But despite a glorious chance for Tyrone Barnett on the stroke of half time and being on the back foot for long periods, Plymouth remained in the match and snatched a 90th minute point when Maxime Blanchard was left unmarked to make it 1-1 with an overhead kick inside the six yard box.
Assistant manager Paul Raynor said: “Somebody didn’t do a job from a set piece. Just as someone switched off for our goal, Tyrone Barnett switched off. His man scored the equaliser and that’s the bottom line.
“The match should have been dead a buried by then, we created chances and didn’t kill the game off. When there is a slender lead that can happen when people do not do their job from set pieces.”
Skipper Pablo Mills, whose free header from David Hunt’s free kick gave Crawley the lead, added: “After all that hard work and graft, to let in a sloppy goal like that was disappointing.
“When you come away from home you don’t score too many goals and I thought we were solid until that goal.
Crawley were denied a penalty in the dying seconds of stoppage time, when Scott Neilson was sent tumbling, and the Reds might have had up to two more spot kicks in the 90 minutes, but every appeal was waved away by referee Philip Gibbs.
Raynor added: “That’s a stonewall penalty. Everybody in the ground sees it apart from the most important man, he had the whistle and decided not to blow it, I didn’t feel we had the rub of the green from the officials all afternoon, we didn’t get what we feel we deserved.”