Crawley boss Scott Lindsey called on his play-off-chasing side to “show their teeth” after describing their 2-0 home defeat by Doncaster as “a big missed opportunity”.
The Red Devils slipped from seventh to ninth after goals from Hakeeb Adelakun and substitute Max Biamou gave 10-man Rovers their fourth successive win.
Rovers battled for the last 24 minutes with a man less after defender Tom Anderson received a straight red card for bringing down the on-rushing Danilo Orsi.
Lindsey felt the game, before a bumper crowd of 5,336, was an ideal opportunity to claim a seventh win in nine matches but was far from happy with the manner of the performance.
He said: “It was a big opportunity, but we showed not enough conviction and were fluffy and not aggressive enough at the top of the pitch.
“We were too nice and didn’t take our opportunity to nail our position.
“No disrespect to Doncaster, but I feel given the season we’ve had, if we are serious about being in the play-offs, we have to win.
“The first goal was a very poor one to give away and now we’ve just to show our teeth. I told the players afterwards that they have been lucky in the way other results have fallen.”
Delighted Rovers boss Grant McCann described Adelakun’s opening goal as one of the best they have scored this season.
He said: “The goal is right up there in a list of goals we have scored this season – it’s a bit of magic.”
Winger Adelakun, on loan from Lincoln, scored his sixth goal for Rovers from an acute angle.
McCann added: “To be honest we were waiting for a free-kick because (Will) Wright had hold of him, trying to pull him back, but then Ade just let it go.”
McCann felt his team should have won more convincingly, saying: “I think we played well against a very good Crawley side.
“We’re delighted with this run we’re putting together and we’ve got another big test on Tuesday at home to Wrexham.”
McCann was relieved when Biamou settled the issue in added time after goalkeeper Corey Addai had an attempted clearance charged down.
“I began to feel sorry for Max and George (Broadbent) as I don’t know how we missed open goals like that,” said McCann.
“What I’m pleased about is that we only really allowed them one opening when (Klaidi) Lolos got right through and left us very short at the back.”
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