‘Little old Crawley’ – Reds boss to use Watford's last-minute celebrations as motivation after EFL Cup exit
· Adam Sayer · 2026-08-09 · nguồn gốc
‘Little old Crawley’ – Reds boss to use Watford's last-minute celebrations as motivation after EFL Cup exit
Crawley Town head coach Colin Kazim-Richards said he will use Watford’s jubilant celebrations after their late winner on Saturday (August 8) as motivation heading into their league campaign.
Marc Bola denied the Reds what would have been a deserved penalty shootout when he fired in a 25-yard screamer to give the Hornets a 1-0 win at Vicarage Road.
The defeat in the first round of the EFL Cup means Crawley’s cup run is over, after successfully contesting a preliminary round match against former boss Scott Lindsey’s York City on Monday night (August 3).
But Kazim-Richards was buoyed by his team’s performance on Saturday and revealed that the hosts’ coaching staff were incredibly complimentary of the visitors at full time.
He said: “I am a believer in celebrating goals. I am because I think the crowd comes out to see that and they like the passion, and the players – it's a competitive sport. So when you score, I do like to see celebrating, but they celebrated a lot.
"You see how much Watford players and staff were celebrating against ‘little old Crawley?’ Because when we first got here, it didn't feel like they were going to be in a game, and now we've earned that respect.
"We're not in the next round, but we take that away. I'll be clipping that up and I'll be using that – celebrating last minute, running on and that means a lot and it shows what we're building. I hope everyone else can see that. If not, it's fine. We know what we're building inside.”
And to BBC Radio Sussex, he added: “I'll be using that during the whole season, believe me. Because that's great pictures for motivation, and that's great pictures for discipline. It took them to the 99th minute, and every single one of them celebrated.”
The Reds boss felt his side made it ‘disheartening’ for the Hornets on Saturday with the way they were able to disrupt their momentum.
Kazim-Richards said: “Every time we wanted to, when we were good on the ball, we were able to break at will. Now, what that says to me, we need to be better on the ball.
"Today, I think we were at 60-70%. We need to be better when we're playing against teams like that, because they will punish us – and they did punish us in the end. But I think it was down to ourselves, nothing that they were able to do. It was more of us.”
Optimism is flowing through the Crawley supporters at present after a promising pre-season and early cup performances.
With the Reds one of the favourites for relegation again after last season’s turmoil, Kazim-Richards is leaving the noise outside heading into his first full campaign in charge.
He said: “I always like to say this, and I use this quite well with young people – what you do in your history is your present. I don't know why they call it history, because it lives with you in your present.
"Because of last season, there's a lot of negativity in terms of how people perceive us. And that's fine, we're okay with that because we know what we've got inside.
"I don't need people to pat me on the back or pat our team on the back because I will be letting them know when they need to do more, and I'll let them know when they've done things well.
"A lot of the time, people don't really say things when they do things well. Everyone wants to talk about the negatives. For me, there's things to work on, but they did some really outstanding stuff today. Didn't get the result, we move, and we look forward to Crewe [Alexandra].”
And that game against the Railwaymen is Crawley’s first League Two assignment of the season, starting at the Broadfield Stadium on Saturday, August 15 at 3pm.