Gary Brabin rode a roller coaster of emotions during Saturday's eventful 2-2 draw at former leaders Crawley. Twice he saw his team come back to level the scores in a game that featured four goals, two penalties, two sendings-off, and a lengthy break in play for U's midfielder Jon Challinor to be assessed and stretchered off after an horrendous challenge by Sam Rents.

In an even first half, Crawley took the lead through Jon-Paul Pittman after the unfortunate Josh Coulson slipped when making a challenge, but Lee McEvilly levelled from the spot early in the second half after he was pushed in the area at a corner.

Soon afterwards a penalty for Crawley saw Thomas Pinault restore Crawley's lead, then United's Ben Farrell and Crawley's Rents were dismissed within eight minutes of each other, and in stoppage time Mark Convery drove home a low, sweet finish to snatch a deserved point.

Speaking first about Challinor, who required five minutes' attention on the pitch before he was carried off following Rents' knee-high lunge, Brabin revealed, "Fortunately it's not as bad as first thought but the only positive I'll take from that challenge is the referee finally decided to give us some decisions.

"Jon's in a bit of pain in the dressing room but he's still smiling because he's delighted that we've got the least we deserved from the game."

Reviewing the strongly-contested and eventful match, Brabin expressed his disappointment with the refereeing decisions.

"He (referee Ian Cooper) gave us a penalty but felt like he had to even things up with their penalty, which we just can't believe, and I don't know how he didn't give us two penalties after that. Ben Farrell headed one that their centre-halves blatantly cleared off the line with their hands, and there was one before that.

"I'll have to see Ben Farrell's sending-off again," he added, "but from where we were it looked like he was fouled, and rather than give him a penalty he's booked him for diving and sent him off. So I'm disappointed with those things but I was absolutely delighted with the players' attitude."

Moving on to the general ebb and flow of the match, the U's boss was pleased with the way his side played, and also how they matched a combative Crawley side and dealt with their provocation, and didn't let the refereeing decisions distract them.

"We work every day on ignoring decisions that unfortunately dictate games and I thought we rose above those decisions and just got stronger and stronger as the game went on, and the lads showed me real character.

"As soon as we kicked off I thought we played some fantastic football and they hardly touched the ball for the first four or five minutes. They're a good side but we were always in control and matched them physically, and we came in at half-time disappointed with their goal because we know we can do better and we'd seen little things going against us.

"We thought it would even itself out in the second half but it got worse, but we showed a bit of character and came back to one-all, then there were those couple of penalty decisions we didn't get and definitely a lot of fouls we didn't get. They went ahead again against the run of play and there was that horrendous challenge on Jon Challinor and the referee couldn't hide away from that decision, and we just got stronger and stronger and I thought we were going to go on and win it."

Brabin continued, "Crawley are a good side, a top side, and I was delighted with the character of the lads. We were missing a few players again; people forget that Andy Parkinson and Courtney Pitt are part of our squad and they've been missing all season, Paul Carden and Phil Bolland were suspended and now we're going to lose Jon Challinor, but we keep rising above it."

Another player who will be missing now is Ben Farrell (above). He will be suspended for two games because today's red card was his second dismissal of the season, and will miss the next two matches against York City and Altrincham.

Carden and Bolland will be available again on Tuesday when the U's will be looking for a first league win since 11th October, but Brabin pointed out that his men are unbeaten in their last seven league games.

"I think a few people are thinking negatively but I'm not," he stated. "We're building something here and we know that, the players know that, and so do the travelling fans who were here - and they were fantastic again today. I think everyone can see that once we start getting the rub of the green and start getting our players back on the pitch we're going to be an awesome team."

He concluded, "I'm disappointed that we haven't won but I'm more delighted with the character of the lads. The way we came back was great. Everyone could see the way the game was going and the way we fought through that and got a late equaliser; it was a real test of character and that's what I was more pleased with."

United are next in action at home to York City on Tuesday 18th November, at 7.45pm.

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