Crawley Town boss makes Championship prediction that would surprise even Birmingham City

Birmingham City is a team that ought to be vying for promotion from the Championship, not just a “juggernaut” by League One standards.

According to Crawley Town manager Rob Elliot, his team came very close to defeating Blues before losing 1-0 due to a late goal from Jay Stansfield.

The hosts were a tough nut to crack in the first period, but the Blues never really challenged them until Ronan Darcy’s late curler went just past Ryan Allsop’s post.

Elliot told the Crawley website, “We were great for the first forty-five minutes. We stopped their press, we disrupted them a lot, we stopped them playing, the press worked really well.”

Then second half we end up being a bit disjointed with a couple of the injuries and stuff, it really threw us, the lads kept going to the end, we had a few chances at the end.

“We weren’t as controlled as I would like us to be, I think we could have been a bit braver in the way we played but it’s easy for me to say that on the sideline. That’s a serious team, that’s a team that would challenge at the top end of the Championship.

“When you have got a juggernaut like this panicking at the end holding on for the win, we worked hard, I am proud of the lads, it’s a great benchmark to play against a team like this.”