Crawley boss looks for home improvements (From The Argus)

Crawley boss looks for home improvements

9:30am Tuesday 5th March 2013 in Sport By Steve Hollis

Boss Richie Barker has urged Crawley to find the winning formula at home.

Reds take on Carlisle United at Broadfield Stadium tonight having won just one of their last seven home matches.

That is in stark contrast to their away form with the victory at Bury on Saturday making it four wins in seven games on the road.

Crawley are also at home against Notts County on Saturday and then finish the month with three consecutive games at Broadfield Stadium against Preston, Crewe and Stevenage.

Bakre said: “Our away record must be one of the best in the league and if we can transfer that to our home games then we’ll start to climb the table very quickly.

“The difficulty is that teams often come to us and shut up shop whereas when we go away the opposition are more open and that suits us better.

“You’ve also got to remember that of our of our last six home games have been against teams pushing for promotion and the other was against a team in the Premier League. On top of that we had a man sent off after 30 seconds against Brentford so that has skewed things slightly.

“We’ve got two home games this week so we need to try to get something out of both of them. It would be nice to win them both to have three wins in a week and if we did that then we would be right back in contention.”

Striker Billy Clarke trained yesterday as he recovers from a hamstring injury which ruled him out of the victory at Gigg Lane but is unlikely to be risked tonight. Josh Simpson is still sidelined by an ankle problem while Kyle McFadzean has suffered a setback in his comeback from a serious virus.

Mark Connolly returns from a one-game ban giving Barker a dilemma in the centre of defence after Connor Essam shone on his full debut on Saturday alongside Joe Walsh.

Carlisle are without suspended striker Lee Miller following his red card at Notts County on Saturday. Top scorer Matty Robson could return from a groin injury.

Proctor hungry for more goals after getting off the mark - in The Argus today