Crawley Town boss Kewell: Draw was fair against fantastic team

This game was the final run out for Kewell’s team before they commence their League Two campaign away to Cheltenham Town next Saturday.

With all the action taking place in the second half, the game was defined by two defensive errors as first KSV keeper Wouter Biebauw’s stray pass found Reece Grego-Cox who played in Ollie Palmer to score before, at the death, Romain Vincelot was dispossessed on the ball by KSV’s Camaline Abraw who chipped the ball beautifully over Glenn Morris.

Reds manager Kewell felt that this game was a good test for his players and believed that a draw was the right outcome.

He said: “I thought they were a fantastic team. They’ve come here and played, they’ve had a hard week as well, same as my boys, so it takes a lot to play 90 minutes.

“You can see both teams want to play the right way, so I felt it was a great game.

“I felt it was a fair result in the end because I felt they dominated in the first half and we dominated in the second half.

“We got our goal and we looked comfortable, it was just one mistake, but it was a lovely goal by them.”

Despite not picking up a win in pre-season, Kewell has been delighted by the way his players have been performing against higher-level opposition.

Kewell felt the good attitude shown from his side has fostered a competitive spirt within his squad.

He added: “Everyone’s impressed me, they’ve come back leaner, fitter, ready for the season.

“Everyone’s got the right attitude, everyone’s hunting, we’ve brought in quality players to up the standard, up the competition.”

“Within competition comes fighting within that squad to get that position and to get that jersey. For me, it’s been a good pre-season.”

Kewell also would like to further add to his squad before the League Two season gets underway.

After fielding a number of trialists in last week’s friendly against Charlton, the Australian has identified several targets but admitted that the will have to wait to see if anything can materialise.

He said: “We always want to get more players on board and there’s a couple of players I’d like to put forward, but we will just have to wait and see.”