Crawley Town inflicted Cambridge United's second home defeat of the season on Tuesday night, and Crawley manager Steve Evans could hardly contain his glee afterwards.
The U's started strongly and it was very much against the run of play when Jamie Cook gave the visitors the lead with an offside-looking goal in the 27th minute, but they dug in to frustrate United and afterwards Steve Evans hailed their win with pride.
"We won here 5-0 in the FA Trophy last season, but I think over the 90 minutes we played better than we did when we won by five," he said last night.
"We've totally controlled the game and in the second half we have got into some great positions with three v two, or two v one. Normally with the quality of Ademeno, Cook and Killeen we would punish clubs with that but we restricted Cambridge to one attempt on goal in injury time when the ref has already played enough time."
Always keen to compare his budget at Crawley with United's, Evans continued, "You read what Cambridge have said what they are cutting their budget to, and that's nearly double ours so we have to take great pride in what we have done here.
"We've probably caught Cambridge United at a good time after Martin Ling has just come in, because I'm absolutely sure Martin Ling will make them a better team than what they were under Gary Brabin and Paul Carden. Especially under Paul, they looked a bit disorientated pre-season and off the field problems might have been some of the reasons for that.
"Martin Ling will make them a very organised and efficient side when he gets to operate with his own players, so I think it's a great win because Cambridge United will be fighting for a play-off place as they have in the last two seasons."
Warming to the topic of finances, he went on to praise goalscorer Cook, who he feels can play at a higher level, and revealed that Crawley's board turned down a bid for striker Charles Ademeno before having another dig at Paul Carden.
"Jamie Cook could and should play in the Championship. Steve Evans and Paul Raynor have never been in the Championship or connected with people in the Championship, but if we had Jamie Cook would be getting bought for money.
"We had a bit of boost because we were able to turn down an offer for Charlie Ademeno on Friday and that was courageous of the board because we still have a financial fight on our hands because we don't get the 3,000-4,000 crowds like they get here.
"You only have to look what Luton have bought and what they are paying loan fees for; they are paying loan fees for more money than we can pay in wages! Myself and Paul Raynor never underestimate how difficult it is to make Crawley Town successful because we come to places like Cambridge, we beat Wrexham at home on Saturday, and we never forget what it's like to get results against those teams.
"Martin Ling is a fantastic appointment for Cambridge; it's just questionable how quickly he gets up to speed in knowing the Conference. He can't listen to Paul Carden because they haven't got promotion in two consecutive seasons with Gary and Jimmy Quinn, and the budget was here, as has been publicly stated in the local press."
Evans concluded, "There were two good sides on show here and we are just happy with the big win. We don't think over the season we can compete with Cambridge, Stevenage, Luton, Wrexham and York City. York City go and pay £65,000 or whatever it is for the boy Gash and we just can't compete when there's money like that thrown around."
Interview by David Gray
United are next in action at Tamworth on Saturday, kick-off 3pm.
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