'The onus has to come down to the players' - Crawley Town defenders on who should be to blame for being bottom of the League Two table

Last weekend, Conroy returned to the Reds starting XI for the first time since the beginning of August. Alongside George Francomb, the defender watched on as Crawley suffered six losses before the former Chelsea man could feature once more.

“It was really frustrating for me,” said Conroy on his injury time. “To watch the team when they were working as hard as they could, but the results weren’t going our way. It’s one of the worst things in football so I did everything to get back as soon as I could.”

Crawley signed Conroy in the summer after an impressive season with Swindon Town. With an initial strong start to the season at Crawley, the 26-year-old can now permanently return to action.

“It’s certainly great to be back,” said Conroy. “Training has been very good so now we’ve got to get some confidence, put some results together and climb back up the table because where we are now isn’t good enough for the standard of players we’ve got.”

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The Reds are bottom of League Two with six points after their opening 12 games. Last Sunday, the club announced the departure of Kevin Betsy, the club’s manager since the start of the season after five successive defeats.

“You can blame whoever you want for what’s gone on this season,” said Conroy. “But ultimately, the onus has to come down to the players as well because we shouldn’t be bottom of the league. We should be on the other end of the table.

“Everything’s kind of re-started now so it hopefully will give everyone a clean slate to go and build something in the league.”

For the second time this year, Crawley have appointed Lewis Young as the club’s caretaker manager whilst the search continues for the permanent role. With Young’s name also in contention with the job, Conroy said, “He’s a great guy. I got on very well with him at the start of the season, so we’ve got a good relationship. I’ve seen how much of a good player he is as well, I thought ‘Why are you not playing still mate?’

“But what a top guy, great coach and all the boys have realised that. He’s given us a it of confidence for this Saturday and hopefully we can get a result for him, the fans and the owners.”

Crawley host Newport County this Saturday with a chance to climb out the bottom two if they’re able to beat the Exiles. With still over two-thirds of the season to go, the Reds could still make something of 2022/23.

“It’s definitely not too late,” added Conroy. “The time it’s too late is Christmas. But for now we’ve got to take it game by game, work as hard as we can during the week, put performances in, get three points and onto the next one.”

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