New Crawley boss Scott Lindsey felt the break of 26 days without a game worked in his favour after the Reds marked his first match in charge with a 3-2 home win over play-off challenging Salford.
First-half goals from Dom Telford and Dion Conroy put Crawley in control and Teddy Jenks’ first for the club on the hour mark made it 3-0 before Salford hit back through Ryan Watson and substitute Matthew Lund.
Crawley’s third win in their last 13 league games lifts them four points clear of the bottom two and Lindsey believes the time spent working with his new players on the training ground was key.
He said: “The postponements gave me more time to work on the training ground and we were outstanding.
“We were on the front foot, we pressed at the top of the field and were good on the ball as well.
“We’ve got enough goals to get us up the table and we’re making a clear plan of how we want to play.
“It got a bit nervy in the end and I can understand that the anxiousness was due to previous results.”
Lindsey, 50, who quit Swindon after six months to become Crawley’s third permanent manager of the season, is desperate to build a connection with the supporters.
He added: “I went over to the fans at the end- I want to have a connection with them.
“I found it difficult in my last job and I don’t know why.”
Salford manager Neil Wood was left to rue “a very disappointing and frustrating result”.
The Ammies arrived at the Broadfield Stadium boasting the best away record in the division behind leaders Leyton Orient, having taken 23 points on their travels, but left themselves too much to do after such a slow start.
Wood said: “Crawley benefitted from what is called new manager bounce, and we all knew that would be a factor, but we didn’t cope with it.
“From being 3-0 down, we almost picked up a point in the last seconds, but overall it wouldn’t have been justified.”
He added: “We won’t steam-roller every game and to come back from 3-0 is something that takes character.
“We have got home games against Walsall and Rochdale to come now and we should be confident going into those games we can re-establish what we’ve been doing.”
