Hereford United 1 Crawley Town 1

STRIKER Nathan Elder paid fulsome tribute to his defensive team-mates after a battling display earned a point against high-flying Crawley.

The United back four came under an aerial bombardment in the second half as Crawley piled forward in search of a winner.

But with Ryan Green and Michael Townsend in command in the centre and Rob Purdie and Joe Heath lending whole-hearted support on the flanks, the quartet emerged with huge credit.

“They blocked everything, got in the way of everything,”

said Elder.

“We said before the game, that wherever a team is in the league, we don’t want to make it easy for them and today was a very good comeback from the defeat at Torquay.”

United had made a great start when Tom Barkhuizen fired them in front after just eight minutes.

With the Crawley defence under pressure, Simon Clist robbed Claude Davis – twice a £3m player – and slipped the ball through for the Blackpool teenager to clip home his fifth goal of the season.

“The goal came from pressing and shutting people down,” said Elder.

“That is one thing that we have tried to change and that goal really highlighted the things that we have achieved.”

United looked as if they would hold on to their lead until the interval but, five minutes before the break, Andy Drury seized on a skied Heath clearance to smash home from 20 yards.

Crawley may have gone on to have the better of the second period but United seemed unlucky to have two penalty shouts waved away by referee Darren Drysdale.

Elder looked to be shoved over in the area late on in one of the incidents as he continued to prove himself a tremendously hard-worker in a performance of nonstop running in the demanding lone-striker role.

“If the manager put me in goal or at left-back or on the right side it would not matter,” he said. “As long as I’m in the starting lineup, fighting for that place, I will do exactly what I am asked to do.

“I love playing up front, love playing with the guys around me with the service and back-up they provide.

“If everyone does the running they are supposed to, then you will not lose your place and so that is my aim.”

Elder had a personal battle to overcome with Pablo Mills, who had been in the Rotherham side when the striker suffered a careerthreatening eye injury three seasons ago, now at the heart of the Crawley defence.

“Because people were talking about it, you wonder whether it is a psychological thing,” said Elder.

“In my career, I have been through a lot but today even my mum told me to behave myself and I just thought to myself that I was on the pitch and I had a job to do.

“I know full well that if I had done anything silly and got sent off then I would not have been playing in the next game and that would have been more disappointing than anything.”

Elder did, in fact, receive a yellow card for a seemingly innocuous first-half challenge on Mills but his efforts seemed entirely focused on getting some reward for the Bulls.

“In the first half, we really went at Crawley,” was Elder’s summing-up. “In the second half we eased off a touch and there were a few tired legs but no-one gave up and I thought that was phenomenal.”