Crawley v Barnsley FC: Darrell Clarke takes time to praise 'tremendous' Max Watters amid Reds' late striker dash

It’s safe to say that Max Watters has had some ups and downs in his time with the club.

The past week, on a personal level, has proved encouraging at least for the one-time Doncaster Rovers player.

While the talk has centred on a host of beat-the-deadline forward targets - from the likes of Davis Keillor-Dunn, Niall Ennis and Victor Evardsen to Mo Faal, Stephen Humphrys and Tyler Roberts - Watters has been getting his head down.

He crowned an exhaustive stunt up top with the only goal of the game to knock Sheffield United out of the EFL Cup on Tuesday night – and earn his club a dream draw at Manchester United - following on from his strike in last weekend’s 2-2 draw with Northampton Town.

The Londoner heads to former club Crawley, where he truly made his name, with a spring in his step, with his input certainly noticed by Clarke.

Clarke said: “His work-rate has been tremendous and he’s put himself about and I said: ‘Get your basics right and you’ll score goals.’ He’s got a couple of goals now and that’ll give him the confidence every striker wants to have.

"Like I said when I came into the club, my job as head coach is to try and maximise players’ ability I have got in the changing room. That’s what me and my coaching staff have to do and while they are in the building, we’ve got to try and keep making them better.

"The Barry Cotters and Max Watters.. every single player in there. Even Marc Roberts at his age, bless him. It’s our job to get the consistency level into them and give them the confidence to perform.”

Barnsley face a Crawley side who have been busy making an impression since their promotion to the third tier and Clarke is expecting a testing footballing examination against expressive hosts today.

On the test posed by Crawley for the Reds, who lost 5-1 on their only previous visit there to West Sussex in February 2015, he continued: “Scott (Lindsay) has done a tremendous job.

"They had something like 650 passes at Wigan away last week. They had more possession than Brighton (in midweek) and they are clearly a very possession-based team with good individual players.

"They have fitted into the league pretty comfortably at the minute and we’ll have to be at our best with and without the ball, that’s for sure.”