Crawley Town v Mansfield Town preview: 'They’re one of the best teams in the league but I’m so confident in the boys' says Lewis Young

“They’re one of the best teams in the league but I’m so confident in the boys,” said Lewis Young ahead of Mansfield this weekend.

Mansfield are fourth in League Two after boasting eight wins from their 13 opening games. Their recent win against Walsall, has seen them reach a seven-game unbeaten run in the league and tally the second most goals scored in England’s fourth division this season.

“It’s going to be a real tough test,” said Young on the Stags. “They’re one of the best teams in the league and their position shows that. It’s no coincidence they’ve only lost three games this season with the quality they’ve got.

“But I’m not afraid of what we’ve got in our dressing room. I’m so confident in the boys that they can put up a battle against anyone.”

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Young has won his last two games in charge of Crawley after taking temporary charge for the second time this year almost two weeks ago. Last Saturday, he earnt the club their first victory in five games against Newport County and backed that up with a 5-2 thrashing of Aston Villa’s under 21 side on Tuesday.

“Last weekend we won the game on motion,” said Young on that Newport victory. “We knew whoever was in front of us, we weren’t coming out of there without three points.”

In his last two games, Young has had six different goal scorers alongside several other standout performances. As the former Reds player himself, he’ll now have the task of picking out the perfect line-up to face Mansfield.

“I told the players to give me something to think about going into the weekend, which is what you want as a manager,” said Young on his current selection headache. “I’d rather have those difficult conversations of letting players know they’re not in the squad rather than not.”

Crawley parted ways with former head coach Kevin Betsy after only one win from their opening 13 league games. After a difficult start to the season, Young has had to re-energise the squad with a hope of three points this weekend pushing them above Newport and into 19th.

“We’ve got some really good players; good people and they deserve more than what they’ve got so far this season,” said Young. “It was just about giving them the confidence and making them realise that. But they can only show that when they walk across that white line on Saturday.”

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