Crawley boss Scott Lindsey was “really pleased and proud” of how his new young team are performing after seeing them dismantle Newport 4-1 at the Broadfield Stadium.
The Red Devils were tipped as favourites to go down after narrowly avoiding relegation last season and Lindsey has completely overhauled his squad, making 16 signings with a heavy emphasis on young players.
They eased to their first league win in four games with a fine second-half performance after Omar Bogle had cancelled out Nick Tsaroulla’s early opener for Newport.
Former Gateshead striker Adam Campbell scored twice after the break and skipper Ben Gladwin hit the fourth to leave Lindsey asserting: “We were very good in front of goal.
“Adam Campbell played in the number 10 role. He will always find space and he will always score. His two finishes were superb.”
Lindsey wants his side to play with a swagger and added: “We want to see dominant football.
“People shouldn’t forget that it’s a new group; all the young lads have been thrown together.
“But we are really pleased and proud of how it is going.”
Newport have now lost three of their four away league games so far this season and manager Graham Coughlan labelled the display as “awful”.
Coughlan refused to use the blistering heat in West Sussex as an excuse and admitted: “We didn’t turn up. Crawley were better than us on the day and we made too many errors.
“Crawley took their moments and we were not ourselves.
“You can’t give teams a leg-up in this league and we did that.”
Former Bristol Rovers and Mansfield boss Coughlan is now looking for a big reaction with two home games coming up.
He added: “In the face of adversity you can learn a lot about your players.
“Now I want to get them on training ground for a reaction and I want something back going into the next game.”
