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Re: League Two

Postby steveizy » Sat Oct 01, 2011 8:26 pm

Crawley Town 2 - Plymouth Argyle 0

Crawley go into second place in League 2 after a brace from Matt Tubbs put paid to a Pilgrims revival after their home win against Macclesfield last week gave them hope. Plymouth stay bottom of the League for now.

The first goal came in the 4th minute when Tubbs converted a McFadzean cross. Was a goal-fest on the cards? - we all hoped for one but Plymouth held their ground under pressure from The Reds and a couple of times they were able to counter attack and find holes in our defence. Shearer, in goal, wasn't really tested though as the attacks fizzled out. This is a worry - a better team would quite possibly have taken advantage of our defensive errors and got a goal or two. The score remained 1-0 until HT.

I've noted before that Crawley often play better in the second halves. Today was an exception. The second half was much like the first as The Reds had a greater percentage of the play and more chances as they did in the first but somehow seemed to lack that killer touch. It didn't matter. After 61 minutes Matt Tubbs was there again, unmarked, to smash a lay-on in from Bulman about 6 yards out to make our victory that bit safer. This, being in the second half , was into the goal at the home end which of course resulted in rapturous celebration :mexican Plymouth had a chance turned wide by Shearer but that was the closest The Pilgrims came and the only real test for Shearer in the match.

The "Green Army" had a very respectable 800+ fans behind them out of a disappointingly low 3100 or so and sang and cheered all the way through. Great supporters and nice people. I hope that they can pick themselves up now they have good news about their future. In fact, I shall have a soft spot for them for the rest of the season and wish them well. Except for January 21st 2012 of course - when we make the longish trip down there ;-) I'm hoping to go to this and it would be brilliant if we manage to take 400+ from our lesser fanbase to return the compliment and, of course, come away with three points!

Great afternoon out --- good result :-D

Next up is away at Northampton. I should be going :banana Then on Sat.15th high flyers Shrewsbury Town at The Broadfield for what promises to be a tough match.
:mexican :scarf COME ON YOU REDS!

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Re: League Two

Postby steveizy » Tue Oct 11, 2011 9:08 am

Northampton 0 - Crawley 1

Apologies for the late post, I have been making use of the good weather to catch up with outside jobs. I didn't go to this televised match in the end and it seems I didn't miss much :indifferent

The two sides were fairly evenly balanced and The Cobblers resorted to hoofball for large parts of the match. The trouble with this tactic was that Crawley played hoofball better :-D

Matt Tubbs got the only goal of the match after a free-kick from Drury found him at the edge of the box. Matt took the chance well and drove the ball home. Barnett had another chance just wide before the break.

The second half was much the same with Crawley having several shots and Northampton hardly testing Shearer. "Big" John Akinde was brought on as a substitute for Barnett -who may have been carrying an injury. John nearly scored within minutes of coming on after his skillful footwork evaded several defenders. Unfortunately his last touch sent the ball over the bar. I hope John gets some more match time as I feel he has so much to offer with his skill, speed, strength and physical size. When he gets his first league goal for us it will open up the floodgates and many more will follow :thumbsup It is hard for him to break into the first team with the quality of our strikers Tubbs and Barnett though.

Northampton nearly equalised in the closing stages as Shearer was beaten but the ball rebounded harmlessly off the crossbar. The score remained 0-1 until the whistle.

Three points, away points especially, are good news even if the football left something to be desired :lol: Crawley - because of the early kick-off were top of the table for a few hours until Southend won away at Crewe. We are now in 2nd place behind Southend with goal difference separating the sides.

We look forward to Shrewsbury visiting The Broadfield on Saturday. This will be a tough match and many pundits are predicting a draw. Not me! I am going for a tight Crawley win, maybe 1-0 or 2-1. The Salopians (sounds like they come from another planet :lol: ) are in 4th place, two points behind The Reds but their away form has been inconsistent this season, like ours. It should be a good match and hopefully the weather will be nice.

If you feel like a good afternoon out, please come along and support The Reds. It would be nice to meet some fellow mzawfers there and I will be there with Carol in our normal place in the South terrace at the back to the right of the goal so you will be assured of a warm welcome :-D

:scarf :scarf COME ON YOU REDS! :scarf :scarf :reddevils :crawleyscarf

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Re: League Two

Postby steveizy » Sat Oct 15, 2011 9:00 pm

Crawley 2 - Shrewsbury 1

Crawley go clear at the top of League 2 :banana

A tough match for Crawley - The Shrews were hard to tame :hyper

The first half started with The Salopians in control and finding several holes, having a couple of attempts to test Shearer. This changed when, in the 14th Minute, Barnett flicked on a pass to Sergio Torres to put us one up. "HE'S HERE, HE'S THERE, HE'S EVERY F*****G WHERE, SERGIO SERGIO, " was sung out louder than ever before :applause

The Reds seemed to gain more control and play was mostly in our favour then after 43 minutes Dean Howell, who has just returned from injury, in combination with a Matt Tubbs deception produced a superb set-piece free kick that curled past the Shrewsbury wall. :applause 2-0 at half time.

The second half was the opposite of what we have come used to at The Broadfield. Crawley seemed to take their foot off the gas a bit and The Shrews pressed us. Then at 73 minutes Mark Wright managed to pull one back for them. 2-1

Crawley held their nerve though and after a few tense moments managed to secure the very important three points that see us go two points clear at the top of the table :scarf

It was a beautiful sunny autumn afternoon, which attracted 3038 Crawley supporters and 415 travelling Shrews. A good attendance and atmosphere. Nice to have three points. And the best double bacon cheeseburger I've had there yet :yum :bounce I'm happy :-D

Next for us is the local derby against our fellow league climbers AFC Wimbledon away at The Kingsmeadow stadium near Wimbledon. We beat them in the knock out to the Carling cup recently and of course beat them by 15 points last season in the Blue Square Premier :rotfl The Plastics lost at home 1-3 to midplaced Crewe and now are sitting in sixth place. This game is sold out nearly now for Crawley Supporters as we have sold almost or all of our 750 ticket allocation. The Red Army is gaining strength!

I'll be there with Carol... and of course report back.
:crawleyscarf :crawleyscarf COME ON YOU REDS! :scarf :scarf

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Re: League Two

Postby steveizy » Sun Oct 23, 2011 4:33 pm

AFC Wimbledon 2 - Crawley 5

Wonderful result in the Kingston, fairly near Wimbledon, sunshine yesterday and far above expectations. Most fans of both persuasions would have settled for a draw in this important local derby.

We took the coach from The Half-Moon again for the short journey. Nice crowd, who as before, made us very welcome :thumbsup

The Kingsmeadow stadium which AFC share with Kingstonian FC is, to be kind, a bit of a dump and the view for the visitors and some of the home fans is very limited.

The game itself was a classic and made up for the poor view. Thrilling opening with Crawley ahead after 3 minutes when their defender Bush failed to clear an Andy Drury corner and instead sliced it into his own net. Andy Drury sent another corner in that Claude Davis headed in powerfully in the 9th minute! 0-2 inside ten minutes but then Crawley seemed to ease off a bit and allowed an AFC comeback.

Firstly Claude managed to cancel out his goal, by scoring an own goal in the 11th minute - poor Claude! Then just before half time, Midson equalised for the Plastics in the 44th minute. 2-2 HT and we had squandered a potential match winning position. What would the second half bring?

The most noticeable difference was the absence of Steve Evans in the dugout. It turned out that he had been sent to the stands by the Referee after a flare-up at half time :censored On the pitch, Torres (who had been yellow carded) and Hunt were replaced by Nielson and Akpan in the 51st minute and these changes seemed to be a shot in the arm for Crawley. In the 54th minute the Plastics conceded a penalty after a handball in the area. Matt Tubbs coolly hammered it home for his eighth league goal :applause

After that it was more or less all Crawley - we weren't going to let a winning lead slip away again and we didn't :lol: A brace for "Man of the match" Dannie Bulman in the 59th and 84th minutes, both headers, sealed the match nicely for The Reds. A fantastic second half... more of the same please lads :applause

Along with the drama of Steve Evans being sent to the stands, it seems that our board has fallen out with the BBC over allowing interviews before or after the match and this meant the coverage was a bit one-sided in AFC's favour on the Football League Show. Relationships between the fans and the BBC have recently been at an all time low over Crawley coverage or lack of and the BBC threw its toys out of the pram on our forum recently and said that they would no longer contribute after they received a drubbing over their unfair and biased coverage :neernerneener Now it seems that our board are fed-up with the BBC too :rotfl

BBC or no BBC, it was the result that counted and the win sees us still two points clear at the top and the GD of three helps recover some that was lost against Morecambe and Swindon.

Next up is against Dagenham and Redbridge who came down from League 1 last season but aren't doing that well in League 2. Fourth from bottom and with a heavy defeat to Aldershot 2-5 at home yesterday - they seem ripe to give us the 3 points at The Broadfield this Tuesday but things are not always that straightforward in football...
:scarf :scarf :crawleyscarf COME ON YOU REDS! :scarf :reddevils :youreds

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Re: League Two

Postby steveizy » Sun Nov 06, 2011 8:09 pm

Sorry folks - been a bit lazy recently.

Three pretty uninspiring games to report: I'll start with yesterday's game which was a bit less uninspiring than the other two :indifferent

Hereford 1 - Crawley 1

I took the coach again for the long journey to see The Reds play The Bulls at Edgar Street Hereford. Great trip around 4 hours each way, with stops. Carol couldn't make it this time unfortunately. Edgar Street is a pretty dated stadium and parts of it are now unused and partly derelict. Sad and a reminder to me of how lucky we are to have a modern stadium here in Crawley. The only real problem at The Broadfield is its size being below Football League requirements, but that is, hopefully going to change soon as planning permission has been applied to increase the capacity and facilities at The Broadfield. See http://www.crawleytownfc.com/page/Lates ... 15,00.html for more info.

Anyway, I digress so back to the Football!

Crawley started this match as favourites and from the whistle were the better side... until a calamitous mistake from Shearer passing to a defender who also made a mistake was intercepted and converted into a goal by their Tom Barkhuizen with a low shot that left Shearer helpless.

We pushed and pushed and they tried to bolt down the hatches until Andy Drury managed to put us level just before half time.

Crawley should have scored three or more times in the second half but didn't. Lady Luck has turned her back on us for the moment. The balance of play was almost entirely Crawley ... we had loads of chances but, again, lacked the killer touch... same old story recently.

The score remained level until time. We are now second in League Two, behind Southend and two points behind them. Not bad for a team just starting in the League!... but could be better!

Crawley 1 Accrington Stanley 1 Gave away early goal (41) which led us to chase the game and fortunately got the equaliser when Hope Akpan gave us hope in the 78th minute but we couldn't do it.

Crawley 3 Dagenham 1

This was our last win and even that had a scare when we fell behind against the run of play after 9 minutes. We came back from behind and secured a nice three points :applause

I hope that this is not seen as a moan - more like seeing a team not really living up to its potential. We have a team that is feared throughout our division but who are slipping up mainly from avoidable mistakes. I'm not naming names - the whole team needs to address this issue. We are doing well, very well, for a newly promoted side and I think any fan would have taken our present position after 17 games with glee and that includes me!

Enough negativism. :yes

Our next match is in the FA Cup away to Bury. Bury are a division above us in League 1 doing OK in lower part of the table. This is a match we can win and if we find our form could win easily. I'm booked on the coach this long trip :-D

Win or lose, this is going to be a good day out!
:crawleyscarf :crawleyscarf COME ON YOU REDS! :crawleyscarf :crawleyscarf

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FA Cup

Postby steveizy » Sun Nov 13, 2011 11:29 am

Bury 0 Crawley Town 2

What a wonderful day out :banana

I took the coach from The Half Moon departure 07:30 for the long drive up North to Bury which is part of greater Manchester. The reason for the very early departure was so that we could enjoy a nice long break at a pub en route. We stopped at a delightful ancient pub with thatched roof and low wooden beams - not normally my scene but this pub was great and very welcoming. We even bumped into a regular there who used to live in Gossops Green - small world! They laid on a nice buffet for us. If you are ever in South Cheshire, I thoroughly recommend The White Lion near Alsager!
20111112_122823b.jpg


Suitably refreshed and nourished, we proceeded to Bury. Gigg Lane is an old stadium but has been modernised internally quite a bit over the years. A nice place, friendly fans and laid back stewarding all helped create a great atmosphere.
20111112_144016.jpg


Onto the football! Bury are League 1, we are League 2 and after our recent indifferent results, I and most fans would have been happy to take a draw and subsequent replay at home. Our pessimism, if that is the right word, was misplaced!

After an initial scare we dominated particularly in midfield where we totally outclassed them and gave them very little. A thrilling but goalless first half. The second was much of the same until the breakthrough in the 49th minute when Tyrone Barnett headed home an Andy Drury corner. Great header :applause We eased off a bit as they fought hard to get one back including a great double save by Shearer but their offensive didn't last too long and we once again took control. Crawley could have scored two or three more had it not been for their gritty defence. With eight minutes to go Michael Doughty converted our fragile one goal lead into a safe 2 goals with a great shot. Every one of us 198 travelling supporters went wild :blob8

Shortly before time, their Mark Hughes was shown a straight red card for a professional foul on Doughty who nearly scored again before the final whistle.

Back on board the coach for the long journey home with only one stop at Warwick services where we chatted to Oxford Utd supporters coming back from their 3-0 defeat at Sheffield United (we play Oxford Utd next week at Broadfield in the league). All very friendly! Straight back to The Half Moon then and I got home at exactly 22:30 having left home at 06.30. A long day but worth every minute :thumbsup

Later today the draw takes place for the second round... part of me wants an "easy" side at home at Broadfield and part of me would like an away at a big club. Hopefully part of me will be pleased!

Well done lads - great performance :applause

:crawleyscarf :crawleyscarf COME ON YOU REDS! :mexican :scarf

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Re: FA Cup

Postby steveizy » Sun Nov 13, 2011 5:00 pm

Well we are at home to either Oxford City or Redbridge (not to be confused with Dagenham and Redbridge though from the same area).

Oxford City play in the Southern Premier League which is level 7 in the football pyramid of England and Redbridge play in the Isthmian League Division 1 North, level 8. Crawley are ,of course, level 4.

So it looks like my wish for an easy tie has been granted but we will have to watch out for the proverbial banana skin of a giant-killing performance on our own turf. Don't forget that this is just what Crawley did last season with the epic wins over Swindon who were League 1, Championship Derby County and Torquay and very nearly the ultimate giant killing act of all when we lost narrowly to Man Utd at Old Trafford! Now we are the giants :o This is the magic of the FA Cup :P

Both teams are in reasonable travelling distance of Crawley and I imagine either will bring a healthy sized following to Broadfield for their big day. All bodes well for a good atmosphere and hopefully no upset for us!

The match will take place on the weekend of 3-4th December. Final details T.B.A.

:crawleyscarf :crawleyscarf COME ON YOU REDS! :scarf :scarf :cheers

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