Crawley boss Scott Lindsey did not concede that their fight against relegation was over after a comfortable 3-0 home win over Northampton left them with only the slimmest of survival chances.
Burton hold a healthy goal difference advantage of 12 over Crawley following their 2-1 home win over Cambridge, but Lindsey is hoping the Brewers will come badly unstuck at home to Wigan on Tuesday before losing heavily again at Charlton to give his side a chance when the Red Devils finish their season at Shrewsbury.
Lindsey admits it was almost “a free hit” when he returned to the club with them 12 points from safety five weeks ago, and the players deserve massive credit that they are “still fighting” with one game left.
Goals from Rushian Hepburn-Murphy and Jeremy Kelly put Crawley in control by the midway point of the second half, and substitute Kamari Doyle sealed the win with a minute left to give Lindsey his fourth victory in eight games since returning.
He admitted:” It was highs and lows emotionally , especially with Burton scoring their winner so late, but we’re still fighting and mathematically still in it.
“I’m really proud of how the players have done; we’ve won four of my eight games and been scoring goals. We’ve had four clean sheets but have probably done it too late.
“Ultimately, we are still in it with a game to go – if we go down it will be because we haven’t done enough over the course of the season.
“We’ve got to score a lot of goals, but we need Burton to lose against Wigan and Charlton while we will go to Shrewsbury and make it exciting.”
Northampton, who secured their safety with a 4-1 home win over Shrewsbury on Easter Monday, had only lost one of their previous nine games and boss Kevin Nolan described this as the poorest display since taking over four months ago.
He said:” I apologise to the fans because this wasn’t good enough.
“That was not what I expected; we were so poor, so below par in and out of possession.
“This was the worse we’ve been since I came in and that’s so disappointing because the lads have been great.”
The Cobblers close their season at home to Wigan and Nolan is demanding a response having confessed: “We looked like we were already on the beach.
“So now we have to win our last game. We’ve performed well over the last four weeks, but this was a 3-0 loss and it could have been a lot worse.”
