Harry Kewell was pleased with how his side performed on Saturday afternoon, despite falling to a narrow 2-1 defeat to Portsmouth.
The Head Coach pointed to the fact that Kenny Jackett's men won the division last season as being a good indication of how well his side played, despite being on the wrong end of the result.
"Overall I'm happy with today, I thought the team did well," he told iFollow Crawley.
"There were a couple of decisions that perhaps didn't go our way, but I'm pleased on the whole.
"That was the team that won the league last year - they've got some really good quality and I thought we held our own today."
The game got off to a perfect start when Thomas Verheydt scored a header in the third minute - his first goal in English football.
The Australian was keen to praise the side as a whole when he reflected on the Reds' final game of the 2017-18 pre-season campaign.
"Thomas scored his goal, Jordan (Roberts) and Enzio (Boldewijn) worked really hard on the flanks, and I thought we looked solid in the middle too," he continued.
"Then we had Cedric (Evina) and Lewis (Young) also working hard and so I'm pleased with what I saw from my side today.
"We had some really good chances too in the first half, with a few cleared off the line, so we can be happy with where we are with a week to go until the start of the season."
iFollow Crawley subscribers can watch Harry's interview in full above - fans can sign up to the service for free here.
