Crawley Town star Wright on dream debut: I couldn’t have asked for more

The new Reds defender marked his bow with a goal and man of the match performance as Bradford City were beaten 1-0 in the League One opener.

Afterwards he spoke of his delight at his and the team’s start – and said the squad were confident they could have a fine season in which they could surprise some opposition teams.

Wright struck a 14th minute free-kick and helped snuff out any Bradford hopes of an equaliser and said: “I can't really ask for much more.

"Obviously the main thing for us is getting the result – a bonus for me is getting a clean sheet and I’m off the mark early with a nice goal.

"We’ll try to make that score our trademark for the season – we’re off to a flyer.”

Wright joined from Gillingham last week – too late to participate in the club’s pre-season build-up. But he said he was already enjoying life at Crawley and had settled in quickly.

“I enjoyed it (his debut) a lot, I've enjoyed the whole week to be honest – the style suits me a lot more than where I was at last season,” he said. "Once we grew in confidence we realised we could break lines.

"In the first half we started passing the ball more. Once they went down to ten men it was easier to find players. I think we saw ouf the game so comfortably.

"They didn't have a shot on goal that was going to hurt us.”

Wright is delighted to slot into the Reds’ new defensive line-up. playing alongside the likes of Dion Conroy and Harry Ransom.

"It’s been a good start – perfect may be a bit of a strong word – but we’ll see how we progress during the season,” he added.

Wright’s goal was a delicious free kick sent curling into the bottom corner.

He said: “My eyes lit up as soon as I think Orsi went down and there was only one thing on my mind. I was going to shoot.

"I managed to nudge the ball to the right before I took it and that sort of opened up my angle to bend it around the wall.

“Once it hit the surface it was going pick up speed and it was going to be hard for the keeper to get across to save it.”

There has been a lot of uncertainty and questions surrounding the club in the summer – with relations between the owners and part of the fan-base fractious.

Wright was asked if this would affect the players – a notion he was quick to play down. "As a group we’ll ignore the noise from the outside.

"I spoke to the gaffer before I signed and he said we’d have a way of playing and were going to surprise a few teams this season.

"Once we start learning each other’s roles we’ll get even better at it. We’ll start passing teams to death and hopefully we’ll have a good season and finish as high as we can.”

Williams said a hectic run of games to start the season would be a challenge but the players would relish it.

“Because we’re a new group, games coming thick and fast to bed ourselves in may help us. It’s a hell of a start we’ve got – the league is really strong this year. ​​​​ But we’ve got a lot of the teams early on who will fancy themselves. We’ve laid down a marker.”

Crawley go to Exeter in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night and to Salford in League One on Saturday.