Brabin unsure over guard of honour at Crawley

The Red Devils won the title on Saturday by triumphing 3-0 at Tamworth and are expected to be presented with the trophy after the match.

It is the norm for teams to form a guard of honour prior to kick-off, but Brabin was in the dark over what will happen, as he said: “I don’t know what the arrangements are. I’m sure they’ll want to gloat and do everything.

“We’ve just got to be professional, we are a good professional football club with a good history. We’re going to do things properly and professionally, play the right football, match them physically, get used to the atmosphere, put up with all the gloating and whatever comes our way.

“We’ve got to be professional enough to do the three things I said when I took over the job, be professional, give 100 per cent and play with a smile on our faces.

“We do want to beat them and win because that’s human nature. We’ve just got to look at the bigger picture. It’s been out of our hands since I took over.

“Crawley have achieved what they set out to achieve and I’m sure they will want to rub our faces in it. It’s going to be tough game, we’ve just got to keep overcoming the little hurdles in our way.”

There has been plenty of bad blood between Crawley and Luton this season, with the big-spending Broadfield Stadium side reportedly wanting to buy Keith Keane at the start of the campaign before switching their attentions to Andy Drury.

Brabin didn’t read any thing into those stories though as he continued: “Most of what I read was in papers. You hear little rumours, but I don’t think it was as straightforward as someone coming in and offering us a set fee.

“It happens in football. Some of them try to disrupt the players and disrupt the whole team, but I’m not really too interested in that at the moment.

“I know Steve (Evans). I’m sure he’ll be delighted and a very happy man. He’ll be delighted to be playing Luton already clinching the title, good luck to them.

“We need to to what we need to do and apply ourselves. It’s really important that each of these six games, we concentrate on one at a time and get the whole group of players firing on all cylinders.

“There’s still a rivalry with the fans and there’s still that competitive edge. We’ve just got to be really professional, We have personal pride, we want to win.”

Crawley are expecting their biggest league crowd of the season to fill the Broadfield for a game live on Premier Sports, but the Town boss has urged his side to play the game and not the occasion.

He said: “I hope they get used to it. It’s good practice for them. Hopefully we get a few more big occasions with a few more party atmospheres in nine games time.

“It will show the character of the players and I think we’ve got some fantastic players with good characters who will hopefully conduct themselves in the right manner, get the right result and move forward to the next game.

“It’s pointless getting involved. It’s really important that we look forward and don’t waste this opportunity for personal vendettas and people getting wound up unnecessarily and losing players to suspension and losing players to injury.

“It’s a real good test for us, but I want us to play the game in the right manner.”

Despite Crawley’s big spending in the summer, bringing in Matt Tubbs and smashing the Conference transfer record for Richard Brodie, they have managed to gel quickly as side, last losing in the league since October 16, a run now spanning 25 games.

Brabin said: “They’ve won a lot of games. I think they’ve only been beaten three times all season.

“When we played them at home they beat us, they’re a strong side, have been backed financially, got some good players and we’ve got to take our hats off to them.

“They’ve had investment, had a good go at it this year and not only winning games, they’ve had some great cup ties and capped it off with an away game at Man United.

“They’ve gambled and it’s paid off for them, good luck to them.

“We’ve got a good squad ourselves. I don’t think we’d swap too many players with Crawley, even though they’ve won the league. They’re good enough to have got promoted, it’s just that we lost our way a bit as a group.”

Hatters have no fresh injury worries after the 6-0 thrashing of Southport on Saturday, though Brabin didn’t want to reveal too much about the likes of Dan Gleeson, who missed the game with a knee injury.

He added: “Dan’s getting stronger and fitter every day. I need to choose the right time when he’s ready.

“Since Newts (Adam Newton) has come back, he’s been outstanding and Glees has got a little bit of challenge now.

“I don’t want to be divulge too much, one or two we’re monitoring at the moment, which when the time is right, we can take one or two out to fully recover and get everbody fully fit to hopefully time it right for the final at Eastlands.”