Mark Yates: '˜Draw was fair result'

Crawley Town manager Mark Yates was happy with a draw despite his skipper's last-gasp miss which nearly won them the game.

A 93rd minute shot put wide from the six-yard box by skipper Sonny Bradley could have clinched the three points in dramatic style.

Yates said: “Literally from the last touch of the ball from five yards out you are expecting the net to bulge and it could have been a slightly fortuitous three points.

“But it wasn’t to be. A draw was probably a fair result.”

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“It was tough first half against the wind and we had to dig-in. We had a couple of strikes but nothing which really tested Paul Jones.

“I wanted more in the second half, I thought there a bit more in the tank but we just didn’t quite have enough spark about us today and couldn’t put them under enough pressure.

“They had a good chance: Jones made a good save, which tipped off the bar.

“Then we began to impose ourselves on the game. We made three substitutions really quickly which I thought made an impact and sparked us up a bit.

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“It’s tough out there because I have got players out there who want to play like Gwion (Edwards) and Lyle (Della-Verde) who want to get on the ball and run with it but can’t because the ball is bobbling by their knees but I can’t question their effort.”

Yates criticised substitute striker Shamir Fenelon for not scoring from two chances which came his way.

He said: “Just a little bit more belief in himself and an oomph about him, he could have made better of a couple of decent opportunitities which came his way.

“We kept plugging away and I’m pleased with our boys’ efforts.

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“(Hartlepool) are proving difficult to beat and their centre halves dealt with most things we threw at them.

“We kept going until the 93rd minute and could have won it.”

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