Sending-off was stupid - Dickov

FRUSTRATION . . . Paul Dickov disputes a decision.

PAUL Dickov saluted an all-round team effort while admitting regret the players couldn’t quite manage a victory.

Both sides ended up with 10 men. Jean-Yves Mvoto was sent off for a pair of off-the-ball shoves on Crawley players and the home side later lost Hope Akpan for a lunge on war-wounded Robbie Simpson.

Matt Derbyshire could have doubled Athletic’s lead, but after coming under some severe pressure, the visitors were left holding on for the final whistle.

“I am a little disappointed we didn’t get the three points,” said Dickov, who has lost only one of his six matches in a productive October. “But I have to give the players a load of credit. For the majority of the game we were down to 10 men and they worked their absolute socks off.

He admitted to wishing his side could have pushed to play their football a little more in the second half: “We were causing problems in the second half when we won it back, broke and passed the ball.

“We stopped doing that a little bit and they got their equaliser. But a massive amount of credit goes to the players and the fans who were here.

“Crawley have beaten a lot of good teams this season, including MK Dons. We are a good team as well when we work our socks off as we did here.”