Crawley Town lost 4-1 at Reading in League One. Mark Dunford gives his view of the day from arriving at the Select Car Leasing Stadium to interviewing Roby Elliot and Bradley Ibrahim after the game.
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00:00Hi there, Mark Dunford here at the Select Car Leasing Stadium. I've just turned up
00:04at Reading for the 12.30 kickoff between Reading and Crawley Town and this is my
00:10view for the afternoon and it's not very high up. Dugouts down there. It'll be a really
00:19good game today. I'm looking for Crawley to get their first win under new manager
00:24Rob Elliott and their first win since they beat Cambridge away in August so a
00:29big game for Crawley. Reading struggling themselves in 17th. They've played 9-1-4,
00:35drawn 1, lost 4 whereas Crawley played 10-1-2, drawn 1, lost 7. So really looking
00:41for pick up three points today. Rob Elliott has been impressed with how
00:46Reading are playing this year. He thinks they've got dangers in attack on the
00:50wide men but believes they play a similar way to Crawley do. So Crawley
00:54we've seen some good signs from them recently with scoring goals but it's the
00:58defensive area where they need to improve and Rob Elliott told us this
01:01week that they've been working hard on set pieces which was a big weakness
01:05against Shrewsbury when they lost 5-3 last week. So fingers crossed Crawley can
01:09get three points today or get something out of the game. So here's the press area
01:14at Reading Football Club. Lots of seats. Obviously legacy from Premier League days.
01:22How you doing? Crawley players are here on the pitch having a look around with Rob Elliott.
01:30Jay Williams there, not in the matchday kit obviously because he is suspended
01:36after picking up five yellow cards. There's Tom Allman, Barry Munn. Crawley
01:43media guys. There's Sam, there's Ant, Gary and Ken down there.
01:51So yeah, looking forward to a good game.
01:56So here's the team news. We've got Max Anderson coming in, Jeremy Kelly coming
02:01in. Yeah, good to see Charlie Barker getting a start again. Needed after Josh
02:09Finn sending off but he's been playing really well Charlie Barker.
02:13So yeah, an interesting lineup. Hopefully they can do something against this
02:17Reading side who are 17th on the table.
02:34So yeah, I've got my food ready to go. Decent selection of sandwiches and wraps
02:39and cookies. So back to my seat and get ready for the game.
03:48So a 4-1 defeat for Crawley at Reading here. An immensely frustrating day. So many good
03:59elements to the play. Some really good start to the second half.
04:03But goal line clearances, good save by David Button in the Reading goal. But
04:08Crawley just weren't ruthless whereas Reading were. When they had their
04:11chances they took them. We felt Reading were there for the take in today and
04:16certainly after the first half. And Crawley just did not take advantage of
04:20their chances. So yeah, poor result, poor one. It'll be interesting to see what
04:24Rod Elliott has to say.
04:36Yeah, it does. I think, let's be honest with you, I'd rather have those stats. I haven't seen them
04:39clearly but I think we had 20 shots and 65% possession of that. The good thing is
04:43we're converting possession into chances. So that's a positive. I think
04:46that's definitely been a positive since I've come in. We need to be more clinical
04:50but we'll get better at that because the lads have taken on new information, still
04:53things need to get better at. But no, that's really positive. But obviously
04:57the biggest stat is the scoreline.
04:59Yeah, looking at the stats, Crawley absolutely dominated everything today from possession to chances and goals.
05:04It's just frustrating that you can't quite get over the line at the moment. What do you think it is?
05:08Is it just waiting for it to click?
05:10I feel like obviously a new manager, it just takes time. I think just us finding each other, just a little bit more
05:15composure in the final third. I think we're so close for it to finally gel,
05:19click like you said. Yeah, we're really close to it happening.