Wycombe Wanderers manager Matt Bloomfield believes his side ‘must be mindful’ ahead of this week’s home encounter against Crawley Town.

The Red Devils come to Adams Park just four days after they appointed former Newcastle United and Watford goalkeeper, Rob Elliott, as manager.

This comes after the sudden departure of Scott Lindsay, the man who achieved promotion with the Sussex-based team back in May, to Wanderers’ Buckinghamshire rivals, Milton Keynes.

Crawley currently sit fourth from bottom with seven points from their opening eight matches but are second in the possession table – second to only Birmingham City.

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s clash, Bloomfield said: “Crawley are a good team.

“They’ve got some dribblers, and they retain possession well, so we need to be solid with our structure.

“It’s never easy going into these games, especially with a new manager as there’ll be new formations, team selections and much more.

“We’ll have to do our research as diligently as possible, but we know they’ll bring something different.

“It does make our preparations slightly different because a new manager will have their ideas but from the outside, it looks like they have recruited a manager that suits their style of football.”

Despite losing the opening two league games, it has been a solid start to the season for the Chairboys.

They are currently sitting just outside the play-off places, have scored two goals in each of their opening league matches this season, and have gone a record 13 league matches in which they have registered a goal.

Their last blank was in the 0-0 home draw against Derby County six months ago.

But Bloomfield doesn’t want to get carried away despite Crawley’s low league position.

He continued: “We need to be mindful of the fact that they are a very good team that has had a couple of tough results recently.

“That doesn’t change the fact that they have started the season well, as they have got a very defined style which can stretch our play.

“We can be the best that we can be and if we do that, then we can hopefully have a good game against a good team.

“We want to play on the front foot, but we must respect the opposition and we can’t be erratic as we need to be secure in what we do.”

It’s the first meeting between the two sides since the 2017/18 year, when both teams were in League Two.

This is also Crawley’s first stint back in League One for a decade, following their relegation to the fourth tier in 2015.