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Crawley in League 1

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Re: Crawley in League 1

Postby steveizy » Mon Oct 22, 2012 1:59 pm

Hartlepool 0 Crawley 1

Crawley once again took the points from struggling Hartlepool in a match where the score was deceptive and we should have won by a greater margin. One early goal proved enough in the end, though it led to some tense moments.

From kick off, The Reds put The Monkey Hangers under pressure and their goalie had some work to do until, in the 15th minute, Hope Akpan drove the ball low from outside the box past their keeper 0-1. :applause

The rest of the first half was much of the same as Crawley had the balance of play and kept the Hartlepool defence busy for periods.

The second half was again mainly Crawley but nothing further came of any of our attempts. It was not as one sided as the first half and our keeper and our defence kept us in a winning position with some good saves and blocks. A few wobbly moments but also several times where we should have improved on the score. FT 0-1.

Again our goal came from a midfielder which is great but the ongoing concern is that our strikers cannot seem to find the net :indifferent

The Hartlepool ground, Victoria Park is a nice compact stadium with a capacity of nearly 8000 so it was about half full with the 3852 including a reported 118 Reds fans. It looked more than that to me but still a good effort considering the distance involved. Hartlepool itself impressed me. A nice friendly town surrounded by beautiful countryside and the coast, good cheap pubs too :drink We stayed overnight in nearby Seaton Carew which is a quiet coastal suburb again very friendly, possibly only lacking in Pubs. We were made very welcome in the Seaton Carew Social club, two doors away from where we were staying which was handy. I hope in a way we get the chance to play Hartlepool again next year so I can visit again. They are sitting second from bottom of the table so there is a strong possibility that they'll be relegated unless their fortunes improve which I hope happens for them. There is a chance of us being promoted too but I'd rather not tempt fate...

Next up is against Milton Keynes Dons at home tomorrow Tuesday 23rd, KO 19:45. Tickets are still available as I write. For this match, it is possible that we will be joined in the home end by some of our friends from AFC Wimbledon keen to see us get one over on the team that was taken away from Wimbledon and moved to Milton Keynes in a move that split the football world at the time. Of course with us, MKD and Stevenage all in league 1, this trio has been dubbed the 'New Town's Cup' :joker

We need to score more goals and tomorrow would be a good time to start. MKD are five points behind us and in eighth place so this has the hallmark of being a very tough game. Kyle McFadzean is unlikely to play after he appeared to be knocked out in a challenge on Saturday and we will certainly miss him. Fingers crossed for this match.

In other news, Crawley has drawn Met Police at their place near Hampton Court. We are the 4th highest ranked team in this round and they are the lowest so they'll be looking for a giant killing act :o They'll have to do it without our Jonte Smith who has been scoring for fun for them recently. FA rules do not allow him to play against his parent club and he can't play for us which is fair enough but obviously very disappointing for Jonte. Their ground holds about 3000 so ticket availability is largely dependant on how many tickets they allocate us. With 1600 ish season ticket holders it will obviously be possible to sell our allocation to season ticket holders alone. With them being lowest ranked and at home, it is quite possible that the match will attract TV coverage though. Once more details are released, I'll update this page.

:scarf :scarf :scarf COME ON YOU REDS! :scarf :scarf :scarf

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Re: Crawley in League 1

Postby steveizy » Wed Oct 24, 2012 1:56 pm

Crawley 2 Milton Keynes Dons 0

A goal in each half from Billy Clark proved to be decisive in an otherwise closely fought battle last night.

Clarke scored in the 21st minute hammering the ball in from a cross from Gary Alexander :applause but Crawley did well to keep the advantage into the second half as it was end to end stuff.

The second half was much the same, maybe with us ahead possession wise. Our keeper, Paul Jones was outstanding, making three saves in quick succession during a single goalmouth threat but even he was beaten a couple of times when the crossbar then came to our rescue!

With the clock ticking, there was a bit of tension among us, 1-0s are like that. In the last minute Billy eased our injury time worries with another close in goal :applause 2-0 FT.

The result was a bit flattering to Crawley really and as our manager said afterwards could easily had been 5-5! But three points from this keeps us in 4th place in the table and we have widened the gap between us and Notts County in 5th to three points. Also it is good to pick up points against teams in the top half of the table.

The next match is on Saturday at Broadfield against Oldham Athletic who are presently in 17th place and smarting from their 3-1 defeat at Carlisle last night. Let's hope we can get a similar result! We did win 2-0 at Carlisle so you never know...

:scarf :scarf :scarf COME ON YOU REDS! :scarf :scarf :scarf

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Re: Crawley in League 1

Postby steveizy » Fri Oct 26, 2012 7:37 am

Metropolitan Police vs Crawley Town Ticket details have been released, we have an initial allocation of 1000 terrace and 99 seats. £15 to stand or £20 to sit. Tickets are available to season ticket holders from today (1 ticket per STH) then to CTSA members on Monday before general sales on Tues. The implication is that we will be able to get more if needed but at these prices this may not happen :scratch

Full details: http://www.crawleytownfc.com/news/artic ... 41727.aspx

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Re: Crawley in League 1

Postby steveizy » Sun Oct 28, 2012 10:47 am

Crawley 1 Oldham 1

A tough game and one that could easily have gone either way sees us move up to second in League 1 for the time being.

The game started off equally with both teams having chances either saved or missed before Crawley were given a man advantage when their Mvoto was dismissed for a raised hand incident off the ball. 11 vs 10 but Oldham weren't listening and Crawley seemed to go off the boil. The deadlock continued into the second half until it was broken in the 67th minute by their Jose Baxter scoring with a close in shot high into our net 0-1 after the man advantage we had failed to capitalise on was cancelled out when our Hope Akpan was shown a red card for a high footed challenge on 62 minutes.

Much of the same followed until centre half Kyle McFadzean put us on level terms with a low shot from the edge of the box which seemed to go through a gap between players miraculously :applause and that was that, both teams but mainly Crawley trying for a winner to no avail.

A bad tempered game, that wasn't good to watch not helped by a poor referee who blew for everything. Interestingly none of the teams playing at home in League 1 were able to take three points, all being draws or away wins.

Attendance was 3375 with 350 Latics so our home crowd was quite good by our standards especially on such a bitterly cold and wet afternoon.

Next for us is in the FA Cup on Saturday 3rd Nov. when we travel to Hampton Court to face the Metropolitan Police. A game we should win but we will have to watch out for the proverbial banana skin! Next in the league is away to Coventry on Sat. 6th Nov. I will be at both matches and report back.

:scarf :scarf :scarf COME ON YOU REDS! :scarf :scarf :scarf

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Re: Crawley in League 1

Postby steveizy » Mon Nov 05, 2012 9:50 am

Metropolitan Police 1 Crawley 2

After we dominated play and went one up on 35 minutes from a low shot by Josh Simpson the Met Police tried to get back into the game and held us at bay for the remainder of the first half. Another goal in the 69th minute from Billy Clarke, close in should have put the match to bed but the Met Police had other ideas and got one back in the 83rd minute and after that, inspired, they came really close to levelling on a couple of occasions. We held on and progress to the second round. That's it. There isn't much to add to the report on what was a lacklustre game, I'm afraid :scratc

Imber Court has wonderful facilities for a non-league side, a good pitch, the best chips I've had anywhere at football and a social club/bar that would be the envy of a lot of much bigger clubs including ours! We were all made very welcome and a friendly atmosphere prevailed. The only downside is that the expected sell-out didn't happen and a total crowd of only 1455 attended. Strange really considering the short distance from Crawley.

We have been drawn at home to Chelmsford City who we have met previously in our non-league days. The Clarets are presently second in the Blue Square or Conference South, some three tiers below us but they'll be up for this having beaten our league one rivals Colchester 3-1 to progress this far. So another tough match beckons! The match will take place on the weekend of 1st or 2nd December - watch this space...

Back to league action tomorrow evening when we travel to Coventry City, then on Saturday we are off to Notts County so we will be doing a bit of travelling this week! I'm going to both matches of course and will report back :yes

:scarf :scarf :scarf COME ON YOU REDS! :scarf :scarf :scarf

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Re: Crawley in League 1

Postby steveizy » Sun Nov 11, 2012 12:44 pm

Two reports this time.

Coventry 3 Crawley 1

Our trip to the truly magnificent Ricoh Arena which even has a huge casino where we were made welcome was the only high point in a poor evening at the office for us Reds supporters last Tuesday. After Old Trafford, I think that the Ricoh Arena at 32,500 seats is the second biggest stadium we have played in. Our lack of a hungry goalscoring forward really showed. That and mistakes in defence cost us dearly in a match where we had more possession more shots on target and more corners than The Sky Blues.

Two first half goals saw us go into the break in a pretty poor position. Billy Clarke pulled one back for us early in the second half which gave us a little hope of salvaging a point but it was not to be. They cancelled out that goal with a third midway through the second half. That was that.

Notts County 1 Crawley 1

Crawley have not yet lost two league games in a row but this was nearly ended at Meadow Lane yesterday. The Magpies took an early lead in the 13th minute and controlled most of the first half, that is until our loanee Jonathan Forte put us level with a tap in just a minute before half time. We looked brighter in the second half but, again, were unable to convert any of our chances into goals and nearly conceded a few in the process. Brilliant goalkeeping by Paul Jones was a major factor here. On another day we probably would have come away with nothing so a point is most welcome. That point keeps us in 4th place in League One, which all things considered, is a pretty good place to be and well above most of our supporter's expectations at the start of the season :cheers

Next up for us is at home on Saturday 17th Nov. when we face lower mid table Walsall. No midweek match this week. Tickets are on sale for the Walsall match and details can be found here

:scarf :scarf :scarf COME ON YOU REDS! :scarf :scarf :scarf

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Re: Crawley in League 1

Postby steveizy » Thu Nov 22, 2012 12:54 pm

Two poor games to report this time as Crawley's poor home form continues .

Crawley 2 Walsall 2 Sat. 17 Nov.

Crawley came back from behind twice to grab a draw. We were outplayed by Walsall for long parts of the game and they could have had a better score. A late equaliser from Jonathan Forte, in his last piece of action before returning to Southampton and some super goalkeeping by Paul Jones in the last seconds got us an undeserved point.

Crawley 0 Yeovil 1 Tues. 20 Nov.

Crawley looked better than they did on Saturday but our luck is starting to run out. Crawley had twice the number of shots on goal, 25 in all, but none of them came to anything. Our lack of a goal hungry striker is starting to haunt us. In the end, the game was settled by an own goal from our player David Hunt when he accidentally headed in from one of their corners in the last minute of normal time. Poor David!

These two home games got us one point from a possible six and we have dropped out of the play off zone for the first time this season into ninth place. Still not bad for little old Crawley in our first season in league one and a lot better than languishing down in the relegation zone but the heady thoughts of only a month or so ago about Championship football next season have had a reality check for now!

Next up for us is away to Crewe Alexander on Saturday, I'm going of course with Carol. We visited Gresty Road last December when we had a tough battle with the Railwaymen ending 1-1. I'd happily take that score this time if offered!

Next at home is our FA Cup clash with Chelmsford on Sat 1st December - we should win that but giant killings are common in the cup as we know so well from our past triumphs so we'll really have to be on our guard!

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

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