Crawley Town boss Rob Elliot gave his reaction after his side lost 1-0 to League One high-fliers Birmingham City at the Broadfield Stadium. He praised the club after a member of the crowd suffered a medical incident which caused the game to be delayed by 15 minutes.
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00:00Thanks for joining us, it's obviously a defeat here but ultimately we've gone toe-to-toe
00:07with one of the sides that are probably going to be right up there at the end of the season
00:10and as we said before the game everybody knows what Birmingham are about. Is that a performance
00:14that your side can be proud of tonight?
00:16Yeah, I think firstly obviously the biggest thing we should be proud of is the medical
00:21staff today who obviously took care of the poor gentleman who had a medical emergency
00:26and I think from all accounts he's doing well and that's a massive relief and obviously
00:31puts football into perspective. So yeah, I think a huge shout out to them and the guys
00:35who, you know, football is something to get tired of but those people are the real heroes
00:39I suppose and yeah we're just grateful that they were there and everything ended as well
00:42as it could.
00:43But yeah on the football I mean I thought for the first 45 minutes we were excellent,
00:48I thought we stopped their press, we disrupted them a lot, we stopped them playing, the press
00:53worked really well and then second half obviously we ended up being a bit disjointed with a
00:58couple of the injuries and stuff with Harry injured on so we were a bit light in that
01:02sense and we're losing Adi because obviously Adi is such a brilliant player for us in terms
01:04of utility to lose him to a concussion is obviously disappointing. So it really threw
01:09us but the lads kept going towards the end and obviously we had a few chances at the
01:12end and yeah we weren't as controlled as I'd like us to be. I think we could have been
01:15a bit braver in the way we played but you know it's easy for me to say that on the sideline,
01:18I mean that's a serious team, that's a team that are challenged at the top end of the
01:21championship so I think it's a night we can all be proud of. I thought the fans and the
01:25atmosphere and everything was tremendous and you know when you've got a team of this juggernaut
01:30like this panicking at the end holding on for a win, I think it's something that we
01:35know we worked hard, we're proud of the lads and we gave everything and it's a great benchmark
01:40to play against a team like this to see where we've come short, where we was good and where
01:44we can improve. So now it's just all about recovery, ready to go into the next few.
01:48Yeah and I think what a few people obviously may forget is that just because Birmingham didn't
01:53score five or six tonight doesn't make them a bad team, doesn't mean that we played poorly.
01:57They were very hard to break down, they were very well drilled and you saw from even the
02:00substitutions they made that you know everybody had a place and you know when you've got a squad
02:03that big you know it's going to be a challenge isn't it? So that was a very tough test despite
02:08the scoreline it's actually credit that you know we were able to keep it at 1-0 and you know give
02:11them a real go as well. Yeah no I thought Jojo played well, made some good saves, I thought
02:15we defended really well. Obviously the goal was disappointing because out of all the chances they
02:18had I thought that was the one that we could have dealt with better but I think we were just a bit
02:21disjointed for a little bit with Jez having to drop back in, Rosie coming on and obviously Brad
02:25going on so no criticism from me. We'll review it to get better but no criticism tonight at all,
02:29not that I ever do just because when you have a group of players that give absolutely everything
02:33for the club how can you criticise them? And I think it's a night to be proud of, it's a night
02:37where we can look to see where we want to be you know where we're playing against these teams again
02:41and I think also it's going to be a brilliant learning curve for us as in
02:47going up against the top team and sort of for me as well understanding what our limitations are
02:52but also what our positives are and making sure we you know reduce the limitations and keep
02:59working on the positives. Yeah I just want to say thank you to everyone, I think the club
03:03really did itself proud tonight with what happened at the beginning of the game and the way
03:06the fans were ready to finish it. Yeah and ultimately it's probably no secret that Birmingham
03:11aren't going to be our main competitors towards the end of the season and we've got some you know
03:14good games coming up over the Christmas period where you know we're facing some teams sort of
03:18closer to our level so maybe you know some opportunities to pick up points there but
03:22there are still a lot of positives to take and you know as I said you know lots and lots of
03:26games coming up especially this week as well so plenty to look forward to. Yeah definitely and
03:31obviously it's not going to be I said to the lads in the dressing room you know every game is going
03:33to be like that with that intensity and that tough robustness playing against top team like that so
03:38yeah but obviously going away from home two days in a row after this game is going to be tough
03:42so it's about recovery it's about enjoying Christmas with family and friends and then
03:47and then making sure that all our eyes are on recovery and ready to go at Leighton Orient
03:50and then Exeter but you can only do one game at a good time so we'll prepare for Leighton Orient
03:54and then we'll move from there obviously we'll have to assess a few injuries so we'll probably
03:57be light again which seems to be the way but that's our situation as a club you know we're
04:02punching well above our weight and we're doing it on merit and we just need to keep going
04:06and what's been brilliant this season is when we seem to have had a bad patch in terms of our
04:11um injuries or people people stepped up and you know likes of Adi he was obviously unfortunate
04:15tonight he stepped up recently and stuff so I'm sure there'll be more people to step up and
04:20take us forward into this period I think I can go like that it's fine yeah yeah
04:26with um Dion do we know the extent of why he came off and that yeah or not I think it's I mean to
04:31be honest I think it's just cramp and tiredness so right yeah it was always gonna be a tough
04:36asking to get through 90 um and then yeah we've obviously in the illness this week and having a
04:41few players missing uh we were sort of down to their bones and then we get the injuries to H and
04:44or H again Finn's groin and Adi with the head injury so um look it isn't ideal but it's one
04:51of the things that happen in football and I thought we adapted to it well when Darce come on obviously
04:54he'd been ill this week so when Darce come on I thought he added to it and you know we kept him
04:58going and we were good we just probably didn't control the ball as much and weren't as uh weren't
05:02as brave to play around them through their press but again I thought they were excellent in terms
05:06of what they did and you know they probably did deserve to win the game but I thought
05:10um they had to win the game they had to do everything they could to win the game and that
05:12was what I was pleased about is that we made the best team in this league probably one of the
05:16biggest budgets ever in this league have to do absolutely everything throw the kitchen sinkers
05:20just to get one little win and next time it comes around hopefully we're better prepared and we can
05:26yeah we can look to go and get more of a positive result yeah and just talking about Dion
05:30before the first half I mean one of the best defensive performances of the season so far from
05:34the whole team but how much effect does Dion have on this side when he comes in because he looked
05:38absolutely class I thought yeah I mean he's a top he's a top player top captain he's been brilliant
05:42since he's coming around the place and I thought he marshalled it and organised it well alongside
05:45Charlie and Tony Malarkey have been we've been fantastic and again you know defensively obviously
05:50the Peterborough game was probably an exception but I think defensively we've been absolutely
05:53outstanding um and that's been everyone anyone who's played there and many lads have and I'm
05:58really pleased in the way the lads have bought into our defensive shape and structure and our
06:01press and we just need to keep on with that because you know we do feel like we've got a
06:05goal for it at the top end and we've been showing that obviously tonight was tough they are defensively
06:09very good they're not just a good football team they're defensively very good and they wore us
06:12down with the possession towards the end which we normally do to teams and again it's a learning
06:17curve so no really pleased with Dion but really pleased with everyone tonight yeah and the atmosphere
06:22of the stadium was incredible and it was a great five and a half thousand people it was amazing
06:25to know me it's a great advert for crawling what we're trying to do and hopefully a few more can't
06:29keep coming because it's something the town should be really proud of in what we're achieving and
06:32okay we don't get the headlines or anything like that but we're going about our business
06:35really well and um you know regardless of league position or anything like that I think you know
06:41we're on our own journey and we're on our journey to get to where we want to get to
06:44and that tonight should have stayed with the players in good stead because I thought they
06:47were terrific to remember yeah excellent and you get headlines in our paper if we do props