Barker: Give us some credit (From The Argus)

Barker: Give us some credit

11:00am Saturday 27th October 2012 in Sport By Steve Hollis

Boss Richie Barker believes Crawley have not been given the credit they deserve for making a flying start to life in League One.

Reds welcome Oldham Athletic today bidding for a sixth win in seven league games which could lift them to second in the table.

No club has ever achieved three successive promotions before and Barker has been surprised by the lack of coverage Crawley have received since taking over in August.

Barker said: “Do we get the credit we deserve? Maybe not. Is that a good thing? Possibly, as we are under the radar a little bit.

“We are a third of the way through the season so to be in the top four and fairly consistently in the play-off positions for a newly promoted side proves how well we are doing.

“If we are still up there around about Christmas time you would like to think people can’t ignore us but at the minute it is not a bad thing.”

Barker admits that Crawley’s impressive start to the season will mean he faces a fight to keep the club’s top players when the transfer window opens in January.

But the Reds boss insists the likes of Kyle McFadzean and Nicky Adams will not be allowed to leave on the cheap – and not to any of their League One rivals.

Barker added: “People will automatically come and look because they will see the league table and say why are they where they are. And when they are here if somebody catches their eye we will have a problem “It is going to be difficult to keep one or two of them secret but I would like to think it would have to be something that would benefit the football club if we were going to let anybody go.

“Also, if we are a top four side league one the only way they should be looking to better themselves is to go and play either the next level (Championship) or the level above that (Premier League).”