Deano grateful for breathing space
ByPA Sport Report
Published 18/04/2015 at 18:23 GMT
Crawley's interim boss Dean Saunders described his players' response as "perfect" after they bounced back from a midweek hammering at Walsall to climb out of the bottom four with a comfortable 2-0 home win over Notts County.
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Early goals from Kelly Youga and Darren Ward sealed a 2-0 victory and lifted the Red Devils up to 19th, three points clear of the drop, while Notts are now two points from safety.
Interim boss Saunders was especially pleased with the way his defenders played and believes his men can now afford "one more mistake" from their remaining two games against Peterborough and Coventry.
Saunders said: "We need to win one more and we can make a mistake and still stay up.
"We didn't want to have a situation where we had to win our last two games and still get done on goal difference."
Former Charlton defender Youga gave Crawley the lead with an overhead kick in the 14th minute and Ward doubled the advantage two minutes later.
Saunders added: "We wanted to try and get on top and get 2-0 up. We had no mistakes and no self-destructs.
"We've had four centre-backs slip through our fingers in recent times, which meant that I had to play three full-backs at Walsall.
"But we have bounced back with some good football and a great attitude from everybody."
This was Notts' first defeat in three games since new manager Ricardo Moniz took charge.
The 50- year-old Dutchman said his men would not give up the fight against the drop with three games left.
The Magpies have home games against Preston and Doncaster before a trip to Gillingham on the final day and Moniz said: "We have to repair their (the players') minds.
"We have to stick together. We can never give up. We must not make these mistakes again.
"The more we stand up, the more it will help us.
"You have to be more creative. You can't under-estimate any team. It is going to need better performances in our last three games."
The Magpies shot themselves in the foot by conceding both the early goals from set pieces.
Moniz added: "Individual mistakes from set-pieces cost us. We made problems for ourselves, but we must not be negative."
Notts, 10 games without a win, have only won three of their last 25 league games.
When asked if their survival chances were now that much harder, Moniz replied: "We have nine points to win. That is the reality."
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