The Opponent: Crawley Town
After something of a woeful weekend its time to move onwards to Crawley. I won’t even entertain wasting a paragraph on the social misfit that just about added to a miserable Saturday all round. The outpouring of stupidity across the various social networking sites was nothing short of laughable on Saturday evening. I struggle to believe the lack of perspective at times, I could have swore more than a handful of supporters had us down as dead certs for relegation at the start of the season, but here we are, finding ourselves just a whisper outside of the play off’s, with key players missing, an inexperienced squad that had barely kicked a ball around between them when the season started, and again we are knocking at the door of another Wembley appearance. Perspective indeed.
Today we move on to Crawley, famous for hosting Gatwick Airport and, err, Gatwick Airport. In the 5th century, The Saxons named the area Crow's Leah, meaning a crow-infested clearing, or Crow's Wood. In the earlier part of this decade it was known as Fat Cunts Leah in tribute to football managing legend Steve Evans but reverted back to its current name when the kebab scoffing lardie upped sticks. Around 110’000 people are ‘lucky’ enough to be able to call Crawley their home. Crawley has a fairly decent list of notable folk, including penalty missing pundit, Gareth Southgate, Olympic Gold decathlete, Daley Thompson, Arsenal and England Woman’s Football Captain, Faye White, and half decent boxer Alan Minter was born in the West Sussex town back in 1951. Back in 1976, band The Cure were formed in Crawley. Since the departure of the rotund alleged exposer, Crawley are not the hated team that they once were, although there does always seem that extra bit of spice when we play them. Our league record against Crawley is an impressive one having met 4 times, winning 3 and drawing 1, scoring 10 and conceding just 1, long may it continue.
Where the opposition gather – The only forum I can get on to the message board is this one –
http://www.crawley.vitalfootball.co.uk/forum/forums/forum-view.asp?fid=2I believe there are TEF members that have access to the main Crawley site, but with a majority of their away support often represented in a single taxi, I can’t be going through the effort of joining.
Last 6 – LLLLDD (Despite the poor run of form they are on, Crawley are 13th on 21 points).
They have served us both – Nicky Ajose, Jimmy Glass, Phil Smith, Elliot Benyon, Luke Rooney, Leon Clarke, Gary Alexander.
The Odds – Crawley 8/5 Draw 12/5 Swindon 15/8. There is only 1 score line to back, 0-3 to Town is 33/1 with Bet Victor.
The Son Says – For some reason he really enjoyed the match on Saturday, despite the score, and has stuck with his 2-1 to Town score.
The Prediction – We will bounce back from Saturday’s disappointment in convincing style, capitalising on Crawley’s recent poor run of form with a 3-1 victory, goals from N’Guessan (2) and a late Kasim thunderbolt, 399 travelling to Gatwick.
And Finally – The church at Worth has what is probably the largest surviving Saxon arch in the world? The arch stands 22 feet high and 14 feet wide, of typical rounded Saxon design with solid impost blocks. It is thought the church of St Nicholas dates from the late 10th century, but some suggest it may be earlier.
