Pete Wild rues ‘extremely harsh’ early dismissal as Fleetwood lose to Crawley

Pete Wild felt his Fleetwood side were desperately unlucky to have Zech Medley sent off after only 10 minutes in the 2-1 defeat at Crawley and said they still deserved something from the game.

Goals in each half from Louis Flower and substitute Harry Forster lifted Crawley out of the bottom two, James Bolton’s late reply not enough to save the Cod Army from a fourth defeat in their last five away outings.

Defender Medley was dismissed by referee Lee Swabey for two early fouls and a furious Wild said: “I’m not talking about the referee – I’ll get myself in trouble.”

When asked for his view of the sending-off, Wild bit his lip and said: “Yes, both were yellow cards in isolation but, come on, the contact is minimal in both cases. It’s extremely harsh.

“I’m frustrated. We deserved at least a point, and perhaps even three.

“It would have been no shame at all if we’d got something out of the game – our players gave everything they’ve got and never gave up.

“Despite every setback they had, despite every decision that went against them, they kept going, kept pressing and putting Crawley under pressure.

“Playing as well as that, we could have got at least a point, but with 11 players we could have got two or three goals.”

Crawley boss Scott Lindsey admitted it became a “nervy 10 minutes” after Fleetwood scored but praised his side for “sticking to the task and getting the three points”.

This is the first time Crawley, 4-0 winners against Bristol Rovers in their previous league outing, have won back-to-back home games since the end of last season and Lindsey enthused: “I thought the performance was good and the result was what we wanted – job done.”

Lindsey made five changes after crashing out of the FA Cup to Boreham Wood and he admitted: “It needed a shake-up.

“We had legs in the team and the shape, a diamond in midfield and one up front, worked.”

Crawley have now climbed to 19th and Lindsey added: “I was never worried in the bottom two. I know my team are not a bottom-two team.

“The hardest thing is convincing my players. We are miles better than 19th.”