Crawley manager John Yems hailed the bravery and honesty of his team following their 1-0 win at Rochdale

Kwesi Appiah scored the only goal of the game in the 14th minute, sliding in to convert a miscued shot from Nick Tsaroulla.

The goal left poor Rochdale reeling and they never recovered – Yems’ men seeing out the game in relative comfort and the three point return was no more than Crawley deserved.

“We put bodies on the line today and I’ve said that since I’ve been in the job, if you do that, even if you get beaten by a better side you can hold your hands up,” said Yems.

“We earned the win today and we’ve been doing that all season – we’re not good enough to turn it on and off, we have to be like that every game we play and the lads have been.

“We put in a shift, we defended like we should defend because I keep saying, you can’t give away poxy, silly goals and we didn’t.

“We were brave and it’s the only way we know how to play. It’s all that we’ve got, it’s the way that we coach them – we don’t just throw players in, it’s the way we have to play. We’re not good enough to mess around with the ball, but we are good in certain areas and we have to play to those strengths.”

Conor Grant saw an early effort blocked by Tom Dallison and Dale appeared to be asserting control of the game until Appiah struck. After it, they were dire, creating precious little for a home side chasing the game.

Grant and Abraham Odoh worked a two-on-one breakaway which ended with Odoh seeing his shot saved by Glenn Morris and in the last few minutes Aaron Morley pulled a shot wide and Matt Done saw a chance snuffed out by the Crawley goalkeeper.

The visitors, on the other hand, went close to a second with Jake Hessenthaler and Mark Marshall seeing shots saved by Joel Coleman and Jack Payne clipping the crossbar with a 25-yard drive.

Rochdale manager Robbie Stockdale, whose side have lost their last three league games, pulled no punches after the match.

He said: “That was the worst performance we’ve put on since I came here. Bizarrely, up until the goal we looked quite sharp and created a couple of chances. But football matches last for 90 minutes and not the first 15.

“We are, without a doubt, in a difficult moment. The goal shook us and we didn’t react properly to that. We weren’t good with the ball, we weren’t good without the ball and that’s not a recipe for a good result.

“If Conor (Grant) had scored in the first few minutes it might have been a different game, but that’s where we’re at at the minute, that first goal is really important. But we have to find a way to deal with that.”