Antoni Sarcevic's free kick proved the difference
Manager Graham Alexander expressed his pleasure following the Club’s 1-0 win over Crawley Town at Highbury thanks to an Antoni Sarcevic goal.The manager was pleased with his team’s all round performance in the way they tested visiting goalkeeper Lewis Price, while also limiting Crawley to minimum opportunities.
“I thought it was fully deserved. It was a bit of a grind at times but I thought we tested Crawley and we asked them questions. We didn’t do that as much as we should have last week and today we came up with the goal that won the game.
“We’ve hit the post, the ‘keeper has made saves and we’ve missed other opportunities which could have given us a healthier lead.
“You know Crawley could have got a goal out of anything and then it would have been disappointing to come in without three points because over the 90 minutes I thought we deserved it, so we’re pleased with the result.”
He continued: “I think the players take great pride in what they do during the week and work very hard to defend in a certain way.
“Maxy has had limited work to do, which is good, but Crawley always carried a threat and they have got a very good goalscorer in McLeod upfront so we had to make sure we didn’t give anything cheap away.”
The result was Town’s first home win since beating Gillingham in November, and Alexander is happy to be back to winning ways at Highbury.
“It is always nice to get a win. Wins are always good. You hear people say, that’s a good win, I’ve never seen a bad win.
“We’re pleased, we know we haven’t had the run of results we would all have wanted at home but I think over the course of the season so far the players have been superb for this football club.
He added: “They know we will always back them and work hard with them and respond in the right way and that’s what they have done this week.
“As staff, we are really pleased for the players, and as I keep reiterating they are a great group and we always look forward to every day to go in and work with them.”
Alexander ended by praising the Club’s strength upfront and mentioned that competition for places is rife.
“We brought Liam in for a reason to give us a different option to what we’ve got. He wants to run in behind and he carries a goal threat.
“He has already been here previously and scored a few goals for us and we think he’ll score more goals during the rest of the season.
“We have four strikers in David Ball, Jamie Proctor, Liam McAlinden and Stephen Dobbie, and they’re all of a different variety. They will all play games between now and the end of the season.”
He finished with: “We all want success and if we can just get the strikers in the scoring charts then we’ll be a better team than what we are at the moment.”