Crawley boss Yates slams ‘powderpuff’ display against Mansfield Town

He said: We were powder puff at best. All the credit the players have gained with me over the first few weeks of the season and the first five or six games is back to level now.

“It was as poor as I can remember and as poor as I ever want to see. We gave the ball away continuously.

To read a match report click HERETo read Adam Murray’s thoughts click HERE“Yes, we perhaps had a couple of good opportunities in the first half and didn’t take them, but Mansfield bombarded us with relentless pressure that eventually paid off for them.

“We knew they were going to start fast, but we want too as well and even better. But it didn’t happen.

“The kick-off summed up both teams, their desire to get the ball and create things while our desire levels weren’t there today.

“There is no point making excuses, we were just poor on the day. The supporters don’t want to hear me say that regularly and I don’t want to be saying it.”

He added: “Only Freddie Woodman and Simon Walton to an extent came out with their reputations enhanced today. We knew it was going to be a work in progress.

“I hope we didn’t just turn up and expect to produce because we had been on a three-game unbeaten run.

“How have we gone from three clean sheets on the spin to looking like we could conceded at any time in the second half?”

Stags’ cause was helped by a 50th minute red card to Gwion Edwards and Yates said: : It was a sending-off and I have no complaints.”

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