Crawley manager Scott Lindsey believes his side can shock automatic promotion hopefuls Mansfield and Wrexham after a thumping 4-0 win at Newport.
First-half goals from Dion Conroy and Ronan Darcy and second-half strikes from Laurence Maguire and Adam Campbell saw the visitors cruise to victory at Rodney Parade.
The three points lifted Crawley to seventh in the table ahead of away trips to Mansfield and Wrexham over the next week and Lindsey hailed a perfect response to Friday’s 2-0 home defeat by Doncaster.
“We were disappointed with Friday’s result and performance – it was a missed opportunity and we wanted to put it right and we certainly did that,” said Lindsey.
“It’s a good performance away from home. It’s a tough place to come against a team who really press you hard, and we took the sting out of them by being good on the ball.
“I thought we didn’t really settle into the game for the first 25 minutes. But after that, I thought we performed really well.”
Lindsey insists he is not looking at other results as his side look to seal a top-seven spot.
“I’m not bothered about sending messages out; we just keep doing what we do, and we don’t care about what anybody else thinks,” he added.
“I don’t suppose it matters where we are now; it’s where we are on April 27 that really counts. Hopefully we’ll be in that spot then and we can look forward to an extended season, but we’ve just got to keep winning as many games as we can.
“We know we’ve got two really tough away games coming up against teams who are looking for automatic promotion, but my boys are really confident – we’ll take anyone on at the moment.”
A third straight defeat leaves County in 13th – seven points below Crawley – and manager Graham Coughlan admitted their faint play-off hopes are now over.
“I’ve let a lot of people down because I wanted to make the play-offs and I have failed,” said Coughlan.
“The fans have been brilliant and so have the players, they are a great group of lads.
“I feel for them because they are running on fumes, and we can’t turn to the bench. We don’t have the bodies to cope with the situation we’re in.
“Deep down I was desperate to make that type of challenge because there is no point in being in football if you are not winning, achieving and progressing.
“I wanted to try and keep the pressure off the lads and keep the expectations levels away. Deep down I always knew that we would come up short because of our [lack of] depth.”
