Peter Cklamovski proud of gritty Salford display to see off Crawley

Peter Cklamovski was delighted after his Salford players ground out a gritty 2-1 win against struggling Crawley.

Macaulay Langstaff scored in either half to put the League Two leaders two goals up after 50 minutes.

But bottom-of-the-table Crawley halved the deficit nine minutes later when striker Dylan Morgan’s pinpoint shot from the edge of the box found a way past Will Norris in the Salford goal.

The visitors continued to probe in search of an equaliser, but the Salford defence stood firm to earn a fifth straight League Two win.

After the match, a delighted Cklamovski said he was proud of his side’s showing, but noted that Crawley’s fightback proves there is still plenty of room for improvement.

He said: “I am proud of the players and their performance today and it’s important we continue to stick to our process, recover well and keep sharpening our blade to be a better team.

“They are a good team and played well but in the first half we set ourselves up well and they did not have a shot in our box.

“It was a really good performance and I thought we deserved to go into the break 1-0 up. I wanted us to go again in the second half and produce another 45 minutes like that.

“(The two goals) are what you play Macca for. The first is a really good team goal and the second one was an important one to put the game to bed.

“While they didn’t create too many chances in the second half, a moment opened up for them and they capitalised by scoring a goal.

“We are disappointed not to get another clean sheet. The players worked hard, played together and produced a disciplined, mature and connected performance to get the victory.”

Crawley boss Colin Kazim-Richards felt the game was a “missed opportunity” and that his side could have taken points off the league leaders had they played with the intensity they finished the contest with from the outset.

He said: “You can’t pin them back that long and not capitalise. Now you’re looking at it and you’re feeling like it’s a missed opportunity. We should have come away with a point.

“When you look at the last 40 minutes, who looks like the top team and who is the bottom team?

“In the first half, we were not good enough because we did not play forward enough. We were too happy circulating the ball.

“We’d be on the 18-yard box and we’d circulate it all the way back to Vito (Mannone). That’s not something that we train; it’s not in our DNA. We get to the box and we should be finishing actions.

“We rectified this in the second half but made a mistake and went 2-0 down. There were good bits to take away from the game, but it’s not enough because we need points.”