Battling attitude delights Groves

First-team coach Paul Groves was delighted with Crawley's team spirit after they came from behind in a 1-1 draw at Oldham.

The Red Devils had endured a tough week, with two cup defeats and five players being put on the transfer list, but Gwion Edwards earned them a valuable away point Oldham went in front on seven minutes when debutant Daniel Johnson, on loan from Aston Villa, scythed through the visiting defence and slotted in a fine goal from 10 yards. But the visitors equalised three minutes before the break as Crawley seized on a catalogue of defensive mistakes to allow Edwards to slam his shot inside the post from 25 yards. Groves said: "Oldham are a form team on a good run, so we knew this was going to be difficult. "We've had some disappointing results and it was important we bounced back in some way by showing great spirit and togetherness. "Oldham open teams up, but we stayed strong and defensively we were organised and solid. "The performance shows that one or two people have been hurting. We came here as a group and gave it absolutely everything in terms of effort and commitment. "It took a while to work ourselves back into the game after Oldham's goal, but our resilience and togetherness were pleasing. "We had to adapt in the second half when Oldham were throwing things at us, but it had the desired effect and we came away with a point. "Our equaliser was a fantastic strike from Gwion Edwards. We decided to push him higher up the pitch because he's a threat, and he really came up trumps." Oldham manager Lee Johnson bemoaned the poor defending which led to Crawley's equaliser. Johnson said: "It was a comedy of errors and I'm frustrated because I feel that's a game we should have won. "We've come out with a point and maybe we would have lost it in the past, but I'm disappointed with the result and the performance. "By the standards we have set, we were a bit flat and our quality was poor. "It was the sloppiness that frustrated me most because we gave the ball away far too many times, especially in the first half when there were too many long and poor balls. "I don't want to discredit Crawley because they made us give the ball away with their work rate and organisation, but there was so much wrong that we'll need to analyse it. "In the second half we played more of our football and we gave it a go, but by our standards this season the performance wasn't good enough."