Crawley Town beat Crewe 2-0 in the League Two play-off final at Wembley to gain promotion to League One. Here is manager Scott Lindsey's full post-match press conference
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00:00 Scott, how are you feeling?
00:04 A bit of worse days.
00:08 I'm delighted.
00:10 That was some effort.
00:12 Really proud to lead this magnificent football club out of Wembley, first and foremost.
00:19 There's no point coming here if you're not going to win.
00:23 I said that to the players all week.
00:25 They have to win. They were unbelievable players of a class.
00:30 They have been all season.
00:33 I'm immensely proud.
00:35 You couldn't have asked much more than that.
00:37 They put in an absolutely perfect performance, didn't they?
00:40 It's ridiculous.
00:42 Just ridiculous.
00:44 It's a bit of a shame they perform like that most weeks, as you know.
00:48 We haven't always got it right.
00:50 That's football. You can play that well and lose.
00:53 But we got it right today.
00:55 They've been class.
00:56 I think there were nine players in the squad today who were playing non-league football last year.
01:01 That's unbelievable.
01:03 It's not about me. It's about them.
01:06 I've given them the information and I've given them a lot of information in detail, let me tell you.
01:11 But they've taken it on and executed it fantastically well all season.
01:17 All season.
01:19 Like I said, we've not always got it right.
01:21 But that's football.
01:22 I'm so proud of the players.
01:24 Really, really proud of them.
01:25 You said to me throughout the season,
01:28 if we get to the playoffs, we're against anyone in Team Leeds.
01:32 Get to Wembley, we'll beat anyone on that pitch the way we play.
01:35 The law of attraction works, doesn't it?
01:37 It does.
01:38 I've said it for months before we were actually in the playoffs.
01:41 I kept saying to the players, 'Look, stay in there because you never know.
01:46 We end up in that last spot in the playoffs.
01:48 I'll back us over two legs against anybody I would.'
01:52 I did say that months ago and I certainly backed us out there on that big Wembley pitch.
01:58 We were unbelievable today.
02:00 We just looked so good.
02:01 So composed with the ball but aggressive without it.
02:04 We pressed really hard and fast.
02:07 I'm delighted.
02:10 You said on Wednesday before the game that you're not an emotional guy.
02:14 How emotional are you feeling right now?
02:16 I'm not an emotional guy, you're right.
02:19 I am emotional, of course.
02:21 It's an unbelievable achievement.
02:23 I think about my family.
02:27 They know how hard I work.
02:29 Sometimes I fail as a partner and as a dad because I work so hard.
02:33 I don't spend nearly enough time with them.
02:36 They've been so supportive.
02:42 I'd like to thank them for sticking by me at times when I come home and we have dinner together.
02:52 There's nine of us around the dinner table because I've got a lot of children.
02:58 They're eating dinner and chatting and I'm looking at a tactics board.
03:03 I apologise for that to my family.
03:07 They know how much it means to me.
03:09 I'm really grateful for their support.
03:13 How are we celebrating?
03:15 I believe there's going to be some kind of Parade of the Clubs around, is that right?
03:17 Yes, we've got an after-party tonight at the hotel where we plotted for the last two days.
03:23 There's going to be some announcement coming out about what's happening on Monday.
03:29 I believe it's a presentation of the trophy back at the stadium.
03:35 I'm hoping for all the fans to come and enjoy seeing that.
03:40 I'd like to see that as well so hopefully there will be a few coming.
03:43 Brilliant, thanks Scott.
03:44 Thank you.
03:45 Scott, normally people complain about VAR but I suppose there's no complaints today.
03:50 I was delighted that he was here.
03:52 I felt the referee give it because he knew VAR was there to support.
03:57 I don't think he would have given it otherwise because I didn't think he was apparently.
04:02 The right decision was made in the end.
04:06 The only thing I would say is that it should have gone for a crew corner and he actually gave a goal kick.
04:11 I felt for them in that moment but he got the decision right in the end.
04:15 It was never a penalty.
04:17 I didn't want him coming into the game.
04:19 I don't know what game we are today, 55 games I think we've played.
04:23 This is the first time we've had VAR so I was a little bit confused about why we needed that.
04:29 But then it was explained really well by the people from the EFL.
04:34 I was happy in the end that they explained a few things and of course it was fine.
04:42 You must be delighted about the turnaround since you walked in.
04:45 We were just speaking in the week about how players were turning up late, even staff members were wanting days off.
04:50 The whole culture has changed and it's for days like today that that happened.
04:55 I think that in order for you to get the culture right you may have to be a bit ruthless and change personnel.
05:05 Which I'm fine with. I think that's a key thing to management is being ruthless at times.
05:12 I felt that that needed to happen.
05:14 I was the fifth manager to come in that season so they needed some kind of stability.
05:21 But there was a lot of loose professionals in the building.
05:25 A lot of people not willing to work hard but wanting their money going into their bank account every month.
05:31 And not willing to do it for it.
05:33 The treatment table was full of players.
05:36 The gym was empty where they weren't willing to do their work.
05:41 The training ground was empty where they were not willing to do their work.
05:45 The dressing rooms were empty where they should have been. They were late coming in.
05:51 I thought I've got a job on my hands here and I had to change that really quickly and I did.
05:56 The players and the staff that I brought in, proper workers, you don't win promotion if you're not prepared to roll your sleeves up at work.
06:05 Every single person in that dressing room, staff members and players are all willing to work hard.
06:12 You've had a long football career, ups and downs. This must be your proudest moment at Nottingham?
06:19 For sure. It hasn't got better than this.
06:24 This is an unbelievable achievement.
06:29 I've been an assistant manager, I've been a first team coach.
06:34 I wasn't at Wembley before as an assistant manager which was great.
06:37 But this is different class.
06:40 This is my team, my tactics, my organisation. I'm really proud, thank you.
06:48 Obviously today is all about the players but on a personal level, it's been well documented about all the things you've gone through in your personal life.
06:56 I'm assuming today you must have had a moment where you were thinking about all your absent friends and loved ones.
07:03 Yes, I was. Before the game, there was a coach's office in the dressing room where I sat on my own and thought about them all.
07:10 Towards the end of the game I was talking to them to make sure they could see us through and get it over the line.
07:20 I'm hopeful that they'll be looking down and they'll be proud.
07:28 Describe that feeling when you were in the Royal Box with the players, lifting up that trophy and looking over to all the Corby Town fans.
07:36 My dad used to say to me, "You only get out of football what you're prepared to put into it."
07:40 I've worked really hard, really, really hard.
07:44 That was a brilliant, brilliant moment for me personally.
07:49 There's been a lot of times when I've been getting out of bed at half past five in the morning, travelling in, working on my days off.
07:57 Studying the opposition, studying us.
08:00 Like I say, eating dinner with the children but not really engaging with them where I've got the tactics brought out and thinking about pressing against a back three or whatever it may be.
08:08 There's been a lot of work that goes in and to actually see the benefits of that today was a really, really good moment.
08:15 Enjoy your beers tonight.
08:16 Thank you.
08:17 Scott, it's an amazing turnaround from 22nd place last season. Going into this campaign, was promotion really the aim?
08:24 I suppose also you mentioned the amount of non-league players, ex-non-league players you brought in the squad.
08:29 Did you think that kind of almost plucky, underdog spirit helped you this season as well?
08:33 Yeah, it did help us. I think so.
08:36 Yeah, I always felt like a key player when I was in.
08:38 What's the point of being a manager at a football club if you don't have that belief?
08:44 I backed myself first and foremost as a coach. I backed myself to be able to organise a set of lads to play possession-based football and to be aggressive when we got it.
08:55 But yeah, I always felt that we could do something special.
08:58 I think the hardest thing for me was actually convincing everybody around me that we could do it, including the players.
09:04 The players were probably looking at the pre-season and thinking, 'Well, we've signed him from Craig Valley, Paper Mills.
09:10 We've signed him from Oxford City. We've signed him from Bambury United.'
09:16 The players probably didn't feel it straight away.
09:20 But once we started getting on the training pitch and coaching the life out of these players,
09:25 and I think what also helped was, early part of that season we went and beat Bradford in the first game. That helped.
09:30 Then we went to Salford, Drew and Ab Clayton.
09:33 Then we beat MK Bonds.
09:35 So straight away, the first three results made the players think, 'Oh, hold on a minute. We probably could do something special here.'
09:42 That helped me because it kind of galvanised a belief.
09:47 Scott, it feels like a lot has been made outside the club, in the building, certainly about you being ticked by a lot of people as the favourites for relegation.
09:58 I just wondered, was that as big a talking point within the dressing room?
10:02 Did you guys recognise those predictions? Did you try and use them?
10:07 Yeah, I think we probably did without realising we did.
10:10 We never spoke about it very much. We were too busy concentrating on what we wanted to do.
10:16 But we certainly mentioned at the start of the season, and I think it did fuel, certainly fuelled me.
10:25 It fuelled the players. How dare they predict that we'd go down out of Tudor hand.
10:32 But we never really talked about it very much. It was probably early on more than anything.
10:37 But yeah, it's helped us. So we were over the doubters. Thank you.
10:40 Sure. Obviously you said there were so many impressive performances, but I think you probably go a long way.
10:47 I've watched a lot of games at Wembley. Before you see a performance at that level, Liam Kelly's the athlete.
10:51 He plays just fantastic. What did you make of him?
10:56 Liam's such a good player. Such a good player. And he understands what the team needs in moments of the game.
11:05 He'll know when it needs to slow down. He'll know when it needs to speed up.
11:09 He'll know when he needs to go a little bit more advanced. He understands it.
11:13 He's almost like a coach out there for me. And he's just an unbelievable footballer. Just class.
11:22 He got relegated out of his division last year with Rochdale.
11:25 Maybe there wouldn't be very many managers that would have signed him because of that.
11:29 But I knew Liam from before he'd come to Swindon and done a pre-season with us when I was the assistant manager there.
11:34 And I always thought, 'What a good player this kid is.'
11:37 As soon as he became available, I snapped him up straight away because I know what he's capable of.
11:43 He's such a good player and a great lad in the dressing room.
11:46 A good person to have on your team.
11:49 But yeah, he was brilliant again today, wasn't he?
11:52 I can't wait to go home at some point and watch this game.
11:56 Just watch it back and watch him. He was fantastic.
11:59 Just finally, for me, some big hitters in the next season with some of the teams that have gone down and some of the teams that have gone up.
12:06 Obviously some of the teams that are in there already. How excited are you to take your core in-town team and face up against some of those guys?
12:12 Yeah, of course. You want to play against the best. That's what you want.
12:16 You want to have that exposure against good sides, against big clubs.
12:20 I've not really thought about it yet. Obviously, we've only just got up.
12:26 I've got away and reflect and have a bit of a break with my family.
12:31 Then it's down to work to make sure that the recruitment is right.
12:35 So, no, it's exciting times.
12:37 You'll enjoy taking them to Birmingham City, won't you?
12:40 Yeah. It's unbelievable, isn't it?
12:43 When you look at it like that, there's some big clubs in that division.
12:47 And why can't we? Why can't we compete?
12:51 We're back to go down this year. We might be back to go down next year.
12:56 But, you know, let's hope we are.
12:59 It's a challenge. I remember a few years ago when Paulie went on a couple of nights and you hadn't played many nights.
13:04 Coming down to do the feature and I was told that on any Saturday, you go to Three Bridges Station and there's just hundreds and hundreds of people going from Crawley to watch Chelsea, watch Arsenal, whoever.
13:14 But on a day when it's the final day of the Premier League season and a couple of those teams are playing at home,
13:19 you've got 17,000 here, which is a lot more than your average player.
13:22 I mean, it shows there is potential.
13:25 Yeah, for sure. I mentioned this in the press conference leading into the game where, I don't know what the number is,
13:33 but I think it's something between 100,000 and 150,000 chimney pots in Crawley.
13:39 And, you know, why not get more?
13:42 I know the stadium's not massive, but we can certainly fill it every week, especially playing football like that.
13:48 Come down and watch it. It's good football.
13:50 You know, we're aggressive. We score goals.
13:53 I think it's fantastic for more supporters to come and watch that.
13:57 And we certainly want that next year for sure.
13:59 Just one final question. It's been quite a couple of years since Danilo Orsi, hasn't it?
14:04 I think a couple of the finals last year. Promotion, scored at Wembley this year.
14:08 Yeah, I'm really pleased with Danilo. He's a top lad.
14:13 Honestly, the nicest bloke you'll meet in football.
14:16 I absolutely love him. He works his socks off.
14:18 He wants to do extras every day.
14:21 And you can see why he's scored the goals he's scored.
14:26 No, I'm really pleased with him.
14:28 What's turned him into a goal scorer?
14:30 Because he had loads of chances last time, so I know he had loads of chances.
14:35 He wasn't always taking them away, but this year he's really put them away, hasn't he?
14:39 Well, a couple of things, really.
14:40 The first thing is he's played a lot of football with us.
14:42 You know, he's been on the pitch a lot.
14:45 So he's been given a lot of opportunity to score.
14:49 Before we signed him, we looked at his data.
14:52 His data was through the roof in terms of XG, in terms of touches in the box,
14:55 and sort of markers, and we were big on that.
14:59 A lot of managers wouldn't probably go anywhere near him.
15:03 A striker who's only scored five goals in two seasons, a lot of people would squirt that.
15:07 But we looked deeper and felt that there's definitely something there we can work on and polish.
15:13 We've worked extremely hard on the training ground about how he presents his body to the ball,
15:19 how he meets the ball.
15:21 Real detail has gone into that.
15:25 But he's the one who's gone out and done it.
15:27 We've just given him a few tips from our experiences as coaches.
15:33 But he's the one who's gone and done it and put ball in it.
15:36 He was always capable of doing that.
15:39 But we've spent time with him and he's worked.