Crawley interim boss Ben Gladwin says his side were “punished” by Wanderers despite seeing plenty of possession.

Gladwin was in the dugout for the first time following Scott Lindsey’s departure to take charge at League Two side MK Dons.

The 32-year-old hailed his side’s attitude after a challenging few days but admitted they did not offer enough in the final third.

“A lot of pride really, just for the players’ level of commitment and making it look very similar to how it has been in terms of the performance overall,” he told the club channels.

“But obviously, a lot of disappointment. As soon as the second goal goes in, it becomes a little bit harder and the game doesn’t quite look how we want it to.

“Results are the important thing and we need to pick them up, but really grateful for the players and what they gave.

“There is always a balance and if you have a lot of the ball and are creating chances, it is the best thing in the world. If you are not creating, it is something we need to look at.

“We always try to dominate the ball, it is in our DNA here, but we obviously need to do a bit of work in the final third.”

Kyle Dempsey’s opener came from a well worked set piece after just five minutes, giving the Whites a platform to build from.

“Honestly, I think so much of the game looked how we wanted it to look,” Gladwin added.

“Set-pieces were big today and we didn’t quite get one right, they scored from that and then punished us on the break.

“(It was) one of the only times they managed to do it, I thought we really locked out the action fantastically and stayed in their part of the pitch a lot.

“Some really good bits but in the top part of the pitch, we just need to show more desire to get to the box and score goals. We created some moments but never any we really deserved to score from.”