Scott Lindsey believes Crawley were still smarting from their midweek loss to Peterborough as they lost 3-1 at Stevenage.
The Reds had gone down 4-3 on Tuesday, conceding the winner in the seventh minute of stoppage time.
At the Lamex, it was an 89th-minute strike by Jamie Reid and a goal two minutes past the 90 from Dan Kemp that consigned them to defeat.
The boss said: “We probably left a lot of belief and effort and intensity out on the pitch on Tuesday. We didn’t bring it with us today.
“We were a bit slow with our play, certainly in the first half, and didn’t play with the same intensity that we have in our last three games.
“It looked like we have a bit of scar tissue from losing the game on Tuesday. We didn’t deserve to lose that but we had to move onto the next one, this one, and we played within ourselves a little bit.
“Our passing stats are higher than theirs, so we did OK but we didn’t really do enough to win the game. Did we deserve to lose it? Probably, on reflection.
“In the last three games, we have looked like a top-half team. Here we looked like a bottom-half one.”
Harvey White’s wonderfully placed free-kick had put Boro in front on 20 minutes but with 20 remaining, Bradley Ibrahim dragged Crawley level.
The late flourish, though, meant a first success in six for Alex Revell’s men, much to his relief and delight.
He said: “We want to press and we want to run after teams and we want to be really aggressive but you also have to think about games that you play, take each game individually.
“If you chase Crawley they will pass it around you, so we had to be disciplined and organised and we were.
“I didn’t feel threatened first half, they had a lot of the ball but they didn’t threaten our goal.
“After their goal, it was about changing it and what it shows is this squad of players can change it with energy and freshness and the players deserve that.
“Sometimes people need a refresh and a restart. Jamie Reid needed one and sometimes when you come on from the bench, it sometimes gives you a bit more energy.
“We saw that, he looked his sharp bright self. Brandon Hanlan was the same, he made a brilliant difference and that’s all you can ask.
“If you don’t play, all you can ask is you have the right attitude and they all did.
“It’s a really positive day. We’ve got over that 50-point mark which we’ve been wanting to do for a long time.”
