Capital One Cup: Crawley boss John Gregory was adamant the best side lost at Norwich
Wednesday 27 August 2014 15:18, UK
Crawley manager John Gregory was adamant the best side exited the Capital One League Cup at Carrow Road on Tuesday night.
Goals from Josh Murphy and Cameron Jerome on debut should have given Norwich safe passage into the third round.
But Carlos Cuellar's own goal on his own debut halved the arrears before the Red Devils threatened to level in the final minutes.
Murphy's clearance off the line was not with an arm according to referee Darren Deadman, and goalkeeper Declan Rudd made a superb save from Gavin Tomlin, before Murphy's second sealed Norwich's 3-1 win.
"The best team lost, as simple as that," said Gregory. "We got a goal back and the momentum swung back to us. I thought we were comfortable in the first half too.
"I always felt we could get back into the game, and the longer it went on the more we dominated. We just couldn't get that second goal."
Gregory felt his side should have been given their golden chance.
"I haven't seen the incident but it's 100 per cent a penalty," he added. "You just look at players' reactions and every red shirt in the box surrounded the referee because they knew it was a penalty. The Norwich boys knew it was as well.
"But the referee and linesman missed it. A penalty and a red card, it would've added a different complexion to it and at 2-2, there would've only been one winner, which would have been us.
"It was a decision that very much went against us, but I'm very proud of our efforts."
Norwich boss Neil Adams, who led the club's Under-18s to FA Youth Cup success in 2013, put nine academy products in his 18-man squad and took great pride in the fact they saw the game out.
"It was really pleasing for us to have so many academy products in there tonight," said Adams.
"I didn't expect as many bumps and bruises after the weekend and we had to rest a few. But when we won the FA Youth Cup we said there needed to be a pathway for those players, and you can definitely see that exists now.
"With those knocks, we had to put the trust in these kids then. I know them as well as anyone, I know what they're capable of and you saw some really good performances tonight.
"Josh has been involved with the first team all season, and tonight he's done his chances of more involvement no harm at all."
But the bad news for Adams was centre-back Ryan Bennett undergoing ankle surgery following a ligament injury in the win at Ipswich on Saturday.
"Unfortunately he's ruptured one of his ligaments," added Adams. "That went well but he's going to be out for maybe six or eight weeks. From a fear of it being months, at least it's only going to be weeks."
