Crawley Town beat Sutton United 3-0 to go joint top of League Two. Here is skipper Ben Gladwin with his thoughts on the game
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00:00 How do you reflect on the win today?
00:06 Good, good. I think in periods we've made it tough for ourselves, which we seem to do
00:10 a little bit at the minute, but it's a young group growing and learning constantly. So
00:14 that's to be expected, bumps in the road, but on the whole, great performance.
00:20 You kept a clean sheet, it's only the second clean sheet of the year, how pleasing is that?
00:25 It's a big point for us at the minute, we spoke about that a lot before the game, especially
00:32 in the dressing room today, because we know we score goals, we've proved that a lot. So
00:38 we give ourselves a really good chance if we keep clean sheets. So we're going to keep
00:43 working away on that as a team, not just defensively, the back unit, but as a team.
00:50 What sort of parallels were Sutton aware of when you joined the club last year? They seemed
00:58 to play really well, do you think there's any hope for Sutton going forward?
01:03 Of course, it's still so early on, and like I said, for 20-25 minutes they've done what
01:09 they've done so effectively. I think maybe we slipped off slightly, but as well you have
01:15 to give them credit in the game, because they changed what they did and they figured out
01:19 what we were doing, and they made it very, very hard for us in periods. Like you said
01:24 when I joined last season, it's a tough place to be, confidence isn't high, people aren't
01:30 feeling great around a place. But of course, it's still early, very early.
01:35 But now you're joint top of the league, that's quite an incredible achievement considering
01:40 what people were saying at the beginning of the season, wasn't it?
01:43 It's nice, but I said afterwards and the manager will keep saying, just keep every game, take
01:50 each game as it comes, and keep ticking them off because we know what we're capable of
01:54 in the building and we're not getting carried away at all. We will keep performing, keep
01:59 going after good performances and just see where it takes us.
02:02 Yes, and a lovely assist for you today, some great goals again, you're playing some lovely
02:07 stuff. Can that continue as you go forward?
02:10 Absolutely, the group of staff put so much hard work in, they work relentlessly. So that's
02:17 just a product of what they put in throughout the week. And the players are so hungry to
02:21 learn constantly, it's such a great group of players. The recruitment's been great,
02:25 the guys they've brought in. So it's a pleasure to be part of.
02:28 Yes, I feel thankful for that.
02:31 Me? Okay. Ben, congratulations on today's win. Three points, three goals, clean sheet,
02:39 one top of the table. I'm sure the dressing room must be a relatively happy place at the
02:42 moment.
02:43 Yes, to be completely honest with you, we don't get incredibly high or low though. So
02:48 we sort of do go after performance. So for example, after the Swindon game, don't be
02:53 wrong, it was a big chance for us to learn, but we weren't incredibly low on the Monday
02:58 morning. We know we just needed to fix a few bits and then the same will be here. It's
03:01 a great win, but we'll go after what we've done well, what we didn't, and we'll learn
03:06 from it and then try and put a good performance in on Tuesday.
03:10 You got the early goal in the first half with a wonderful assist from you and Adam Campbell
03:14 swept it in first time for a wonderful goal. Then Sutton worked their way back into the
03:18 game and they had two goals disallowed before the break. What was said at half-time to change
03:23 things around in the second half?
03:25 Like I said, I think it's easy sometimes to say we've come off it a little bit or credit
03:34 to them because they'd figured out what we were doing quite well, I thought, and maybe
03:38 we did drop our level a little bit. But just more of the same, more courage probably, take
03:44 the ball again, don't just look to clear the ball, take the ball in the tight areas, keep
03:50 doing what we are good at and what we believe in. And they can only do it for so long. They
03:57 can only go crazy for another 10, 15 minutes, which probably turned out to be true. They
04:03 gave it a good go early on in the second half, but we took the legs away from them.
04:08 How proud are you to be the skipper of this side at the moment, Ben, given what the club
04:13 went through last season? I know you were skipper last season and led the side to safety,
04:17 but you must be immensely proud of what the club are doing under your charge at the moment.
04:22 Yes, it's a pleasure to be a part of it, it really is. Like I said, the staff deserve
04:28 so much credit because the work they put in is not something I've seen loads and loads
04:32 in professional football. They really care and the recruitment was amazing. I think the
04:38 characters that you have in the building are everything. Forget about ability, if they're
04:42 not the right characters, it's not easy. So we're lucky that we've got really good characters
04:47 and good players and we've a good set of staff. So it's a pleasure to be a part of and I think
04:52 it's something that we can create a special season.
04:55 You talked just a moment ago about that defeat at Swindon towards the end of August. You've
04:58 now gone the whole of September unbeaten in all competitions, scoring goal after goal
05:03 after goal. The resilience and the way the side have come back after that defeat in Swindon
05:08 is really second to none as well.
05:10 Yes, I think at the time it's obviously so painful, but we have a really young group
05:17 and there are going to be bumps in the road. Those setbacks are going to happen and I'm
05:21 sure it will happen again, hopefully never that heavily. But there will be bumps in the
05:26 road again and we will learn from them, that's what the manager asks for. When we win, when
05:32 we lose, when the performance is good or bad, we learn constantly. So we will continue to
05:38 do that and yes, great reaction to that result.
05:42 And on to Tuesday night, the next game, they come thick and fast at this stage of the season.
05:45 It's another long journey to make mid-week, but like I said to Scott, you'll go there
05:49 with a huge amount of confidence. You've now got the first win on the road at Grimsby last
05:52 week, you surely won't go there with confidence any higher at any stage of the season?
05:57 No, I think that's probably been the one challenge, to be honest. As one of the older heads and
06:01 the captain along with the staff, it's really convincing this group that we're a good team,
06:08 especially after last season. I know we've had a lot of changes in the group, but just
06:13 the feeling around the club and within the dressing room is like, forget that last season.
06:18 I know it hurt a lot, but forget that. We're trying to do something very special and we're
06:22 a good team. So we have to go into every game now believing that.
06:27 All of us in the press box today, and I was sitting here talking about it as well before
06:30 you came in, we're all looking forward to next Saturday when the circus of Wrexham comes
06:35 to town and the entertainment and the potential goals that that may well bring.
06:39 Yes, they seem to be involved in games with a lot of goals. Hopefully not too many for
06:45 them next week, but it'll be a great occasion. I'm sure for everybody outside of the changing
06:51 room it will be maybe different, but for us we need to approach it exactly the same. Go
06:55 through what we go through during the week. Most importantly, we look after business Tuesday
07:00 and we just follow the same process, keep ticking the games off, trying to go after
07:06 good performances first and foremost, and I'm sure results will follow.