Thetownend.com

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=2

I 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.

COYR COYR COYR

Split with my missus and lived in digs in Crawley for a bit.....lowest point of my life and I shudder when I go back there.

Early start at work today in Bagshot...I don't know if I will go tonight...It was a place that once I had been, I thought never again.....

I feel a 'bounce back' is on the cards, with away day Danny bagging a Hattrick. Nile to get nowt...

Feel a town win coming here
2 - 1 for me with Ajose and N'Guessen bagging the goals
300 cold town fans making the effort
3100 overall

Do we only ever play Crawley when it's Baltic?!....

2-0 Swindon, N'Guessan & Ajose

290 travelling fans.

Perfect game to bounce back with a win - no question about it......just can`t decide on 1-2 or 0-2 -  :toocool:

A quote from the Creepy forum...

They are also saying that they have cut short Luke Rooneys loan and returned him to us.

Who's saying that? I saw that mentioned on here yesterday, but couldn't find any info regarding it..

All I can find is that he's ineligible to play..

At their presser yesterday their manager said he was ineligible due to town being his parent club.
Nothing about returning

I'm going so we will lose, and it will be cold.

2-0 Crawley.

I also read in various Adver articles this morning that Ranger is out of favour. Has he played his last game for us?

Never say never but despite the "back in training" story last week I got the feeling Cooper isn't exactly chuffed (unsurprisingly)

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/10827157.Cooper_hails_Ajose_contribution/


2 - 1 Town tonight.

Well, due to be a balmy 2 degrees at kick off... the London boys and girls are meeting from around 4.30 onwards in the Snooty Fox outside 3 bridges station, for anyone who fancies a pint and a chat with time to kill.

I can't get away from work early enough sadly so can't get there until around 6.45, I'll have to drink quickly!

Stupid question time. My train ticket is to Crawley. 3 bridges is on that line, does that mean my tickets is valid if I get out at 3 Bridges?

You'll be fine.  No problem getting off a stop early.

The only time you need to be careful with something like that is when pulling the 'Didcot Scam' - which, actually, isn't a scam at all because it's completely legitimate.  (It's where you use your TfL Gold Card/annual ticket to obtain a reduced fare for travel to home games on the Paddington to Didcot leg, and buy a separate ticket for the Didcot to Swindon leg which falls outside of the zone for which the Gold Card entitles you to the reduced fare.  When doing this, you just need to ensure that the trains you catch each way actually stop physically at Didcot, rather than running straight through to/from Reading.)

More info than you needed there, but as a newly initiated London Red I thought it might be useful.

Last experience of Crawley involved my mugshot on the front page of the Adver...not going tonight, but I think we'll take a point 1-1. 280 travelling down, with an attendance at the car park of 2,812.

I've got a good feeling about this!  2-1 Swindon COYR

I reckons 3-1 Swindon, 314 Town fans, and a nice pick-me-up after the weekend.

Nice write up SR, it's hard to find anything to say about Crawley other than 'Its a hole'.

I thought 'travelling short' was an offence?

We'll get a cab from the station so I reckon at a push I could get 4 in during that time If I had to ;)

Really?  I've used an annual ticket to make journeys to intermediate stations on lots of occasions.  Happy to be corrected, but I don't think that's the case.  And I can't see why any train company would want to get upset about it either.

Ah, there's the difference. Definitely an offence with advance tickets.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/couple-fined-114-for-getting-off-train-before-their-final-stop-6510426.html

Badly missed the extra class that Mason and Ranger provide v Lorient. Guess we better get used to it though.
Luke Rooney being ineligible to play for Creepy is hardly relevant since he has hardly played at all since he's been there. His loan ends January 1st and can't see why they would want to extend it. He barely played last season when out on loan either so wouldn't be a big surprise to see him joining Lee Cox, Troy and Navarro on the expensive unused or injured cast off list at the County Ground come January, as hard to see why anyone else would want to pay him for sitting on their subs bench for 6 months.
Hopefully the zero forward option will outweigh the zero defenders scenario this evening so 2-1 Swindon in front of 2790 297 of which from Swindon. Ajose opener and another wickedly deflected Luongo shot to win it.

It wont be a problem, that would be like getting a zone 6 travel card and deciding to get off for a pint in zone 4, if on the off chance the ticket machine did reject, then none of the staff on the station would have an issue.

Interesting about the Saxon arch....the World Marbles Championship held for many years at Tinsley Green, might have been worth (no pun intended) a mention.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/marbles-championship-at-tinsley-green

That article states - Stagecoach, which runs South West Trains, said leaving a train early — known as travelling "short" — was not allowed on heavily discounted tickets.

My ticket wasn't heavily discounted. That article is also from 2010 so hopefully common sense has prevailed since then.


That seems logical Sutton.


Yeah a cab sounds good. 4 Pints or Jager Bombs?

They're not a top 6 side so we should get something tonight. Probably 1-1.

Don't forget our history with this one.

3-0 is the eternal score to the Reds

In Sutton's case definitely pints, i've never known anyone drink quicker!

School night, tonight though, although I am, ahem working from home tomorrow ;)

Jammy git! ;)

Incidentally for those concerned about 'travelling short' I had it confirmed at Blackfriars station that my ticket is ok to do. Apparently only 'advance' tickets you aren't allowed to travel short on. 

All quotes from the thread on the Creepy forum....

So..........

Likely line-up tonight?..

I'm half expecting MC/LP to mix it up a bit. I think that 4-6-0 or whatever it was called is just asking for trouble against Crawley. They'd have seen how we set up against Colchester and I'd fully expect them to contain it. Let us not go away looking for a point - that is not the mentality we want to see. I'd take a point - but we should be looking for all 3. Without Ranger we are extremely limited up top - but that is a reflection of what the management have given us to work with. There is no-one to replace ranger really, even from the injured lot. If PDC was here (I know, I know,) he'd be telling everyone we were the best and that we would smash Crawley to bits. MC talks about how they''ve spent 100k on a striker and how they've got one of our rejects. I don't really believe in MC - because he doesn't believe, and that is because it is not his cause - it is LP's. There is no fire in his eyes or no belief that the decisions are made by him. That filters down the team. There are no leaders on the pitch. Ward is not a leader. He has been made out to be but I never see him lead. I only see him pipe up when someone about 15 years younger than him makes an error. John Terry is a leader - on it for 90 mins. Ward says the right things but because he's been in 'charge' for a couple of games (and did a terrible job) people seem to think he is automatically a good coach, teacher, and leader. He's not, and he's not even in the top 20 CBs in League 1. Until someone that believes in the cause is running the club, filters that down to a manager that believes in himself, and passes that on to 1 or 2 real leaders on the pitch, we will have this topsy-turvy season that the current management seem happy with. To have a productive workforce you need not to motivate but inspire, and that is something these young men are not - inspired.

Some first post and not a bad take on things.

The one thing I noticed on Saturday was how soon the shoulders visibly sagged when Lorient equalised.

Just wish we could return to the exciting style we had earlier in the season - whether we win or not

You do know it's 2013? Or was 2012 when you first started supporting us?

3-1 win ,2 from Ajose and a Elgabas debut goal,now where did i put the rest of my magic mushrooms? COYRs

Or the date he/she registered ;)

Mason on bench.

Wes Foderingham, Nathan Thompson, Grant Hall, Darren Ward, Nathan Byrne, Yasser Kasim, Louis Thompson, Massimo Luongo, Ryan Harley, Dany N'Guessan, Nicky Ajose

Subs:
Tyrell Belford, Branco, Jack Barthram, Alex Pritchard, Ryan Mason, ElGabas, Miles Storey

What was said about Ranger. Saw a couple of tweets saying the club hinted he's gone? r did I get the wrong end of the stick?

We'll miss McEveley tonight I feel.

Well I weighed it up and realised I can't do it all....

So Neville Staple in the VIC on Friday night wins...

C'mon town....lets leg em over....

A good choice.

Byrne at LB is never good.


In Nev Staple vs. Crawley, Nev would win every time.

This sounds fun

Something nearly happened. Then it didn't. The end.

Top post that.

Wish u were there....and Carlisle on Sat...offer still stands...

I am hoping Coventry may be a goer mate, will txt you.

Ok mate..

You mean Northampton

Orient winning away at city :toocool:

Anyone manage to stay awake through that?

Piss poor first 45. Defending too deep yet no out ball. No good when Ajose and N'Guessan both on our own 18yd line defending. As for the corners, well all short and all come to nothing. Can only get better. I hope . And even the bovril tastes like tesco value gravy. Not a good half

Two sides playing a 10-0-0 formation by the sounds of it zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

We are playing Crawley Town right? So why are we set up like we have visited the fucking Nou Camp?

So that we don't lose away from home again, and besides it worked in our last away game.

A point would be a good result IMO

I agree.

Doesn't sound that great does it?

This is a snore fest - I wonder how many subs will be used tonight

So...stick or twist. Continue to play for the point, or introduce mason and/or Pritchard.

Not sure I'd risk mason mind..

Zzzzzzz

Still no shot on target.

Lets snatch it at the death with a wonder goal.....

No glory in playing for a 0-0 with Crawley... hardly likely to build momentum, bloody go for it.

We won't change until they score, for gods sake have a go it's only Crawley!

I don't understand why we always leave our subs late/decide not to use all 3.

People whinge that we're too open away from home, and then whinge when we play more compactly and reserved. Christ on a bike. We're Swindon Town, not Bayern Munich

Twist. Let's go for it

Agreed if we were away at Sheffield Utd/Peterborough etc but Crawley? Really?

Scorey Storey comes on......Boom.....it's over...

So you'd rather us shut up shop against Sheff Utd, who've rarely left the relegation zone all season, than against a comfortably mid-table crawley side?

Thinking more about playing the crowd and atmosphere than the team, Crawley are hardly on a killer run at the moment are they? If we are scared of them god help us.

Another red card.

FFS Byrne!

Sounds like the Wes Brown tackle at the weekend.

Liability springs to mind! Twat!

Fan Bloody tastic idiot

And we'd just strung a couple of chances together too. I was thinking we might nick it.

Now we're under the cosh!

Rough justice for him again? Morshead:

I'm assuming you all have a really good view from your sofa.

Sam has tweeted that it was never a foul, let alone a yellow card.

Sounded like a classic.

See we done well with the subs made again today then

I think 0-0 against Crawley is not a good result we should have been looking for the win not a draw

I'm not sitting on my sofa though :>)

You're clearly on the loo.

Solid point.

As I said at h/t and in my score prediction, a point is a good result AND a bonus clean sheet - take the positives!

The commentators said he lunged in. He was on a yellow. He took a chance again and gave the referee the opportunity to send him off.

Clean sheet, point away from home, happy with that.

4 points from last two away, improvement in away results

Good away point i reckon,always tough playing there.

I also think if we can get a win at home to Carlisle Saturday, then 4/6 points this week wouldn't be too bad a return ahead of a 2 week break before Sheff Utd. (Bar JPT game)

Well said.

Dire game by the sounds of it, decent point away from home and the bonus of a clean sheet as well.

Sounds like Byrne learned nothing from the McEveley situation on Saturday.  Our disciplinary record is really becoming quite poor.

:D

Fair enough

Ranger back in training. Not in great shape as he's not done anything for 3 weeks. If he's available for selection and behaves he'll be considered (Saturday) - Coops

Swindon Manager Mark Cooper has told @BBCWiltshire "if we had kept 11 men on the pitch we would have won the game.

What minute was Byrne sent off in?

Thank fuck for that...

Decent point tonight if it's followed up by three on Saturday.

Is it just me or was Cooper being very sarcastic with his reply to the Byrne sending off?

Look at my post.

Yes he was.

What did he say?

He said he thought the ref had an outstanding game and that he (Cooper) could see why D'urso has refereed matches in the premiership before.

Or something like that

Of course he was!

Quite blatant really, don't know why I needed to ask.

He scored +2 man love points from me for that response.

Luongo always sounds really nervous in his interviews

We were better in the second half. Byrne's second yellow looked blatant to me but we were quite far away.

Ajose looked lovely and mason and Pritchard played quite well together in the short time they were on.

Crawley weren't very good and it's a shame we didn't go for it earlier as I reckon we were good enough to take all 3 points. Would have taken a point pre-match mind you.

Important for the confidence of the whole team knowing they can get through 90 minutes without a cock-up and conceding a goal.

Sound result tonight

:gay:

I've just noticed I said ajose looked lovely. Not what I intended, but fuck it I'll leave it!

Good point away from home. It seemed the marginal decisions went Crawley's way, and Ajose should have scored towards the end. A draw was probably fair on both teams.

N'Guessan caused Crawley some problems with his physicality and I was sad to see him go off. Two key points for Mark Cooper:

1). Why did it take until the second half to dispense with the short corner routine and lump it in the box. We caused Crawley all sorts of problems once we stopped the tippy tippy shit at corners.

2). Stop playing it short from goal kicks - it ends up back with Foderingham who then has to lump under pressure.

Kasim was quality tonight. He does make me a bit nervous with short passing in our own half, but he starts a lot of good moves.

Highlight of the night - Byrne's step-over cross thingy.

What did you intend? Gorgeous?

Lively, lonely, lippy?

Fair write up. Thought we defended far too deep. At Colchester we hit them on the break, that didnt come off today. Before Ajose hit the post pritchard was nearly wiped out by a 2 footed challenge without not so much as a word from ref let alone a card. Officials poor again tonight but we really didnt deserve anything more than a point with that performance. Sums up how poor we have become when shitty come back twice against lorient. Oh well. Saturday at home to the next worst disciplined team in the lge. Odds on all 22 finishing the game ?

For the record I intended to say lively! Stupid auto correct!

Very reassuring to hear that. Hopefully he can kick on and regain his pre-suspension consistency.

Forgot about the short corners, that was so infuriating! Almost every one was wasted! Our free kick delivery into the box was pretty dire as well.

And why do our players never seem to offer an option at throw ins, our opponents always seem to so why don't we?

N'guessan is a bit of an enigma. One minute he's waltzing around 4 players and the next minute he'll fail to complete a simple pass. I like him though (not as much as lovely NJ though!)

As I said at the game, but I will again anyway. A game best watched on teletext, and 4-6-0 should be related to old locomotives only.

Oh and nice to have met yourself and other London reds tonight!

Glass half full: Crawley haven't scored at home in 300 minutes now, so not such a big deal

A good point, clean sheet and still never lost at Crawley so all good.

Dire game last night. Was a bit disappointed at how negative we were considering how awful Crawley are, there was definitely 3 points there for the taking.

On the positive side, we looked far more solid at the back compared to recent weeks, although that could just illustrate how rubbish they are! Can't comment on the sending off as we were too far away. Decent turnout from town fans when you consider it was a freezing Tuesday in November.

Enjoyable evening marred by the 90 minutes of football.

Not sure about how as soon as something works once (3-5-2 against Rotherham, 4-6-0 against Col U) it's rolled out every game - there's something to be said for tailoring your approach to the specific game. Certainly made for a dour spectacle with no one to really get the ball to in central positions. Thankfully Crawley were no better.

Having said that we had a 15 minute spell before N'Guessan went off where we looked more like the incisive footballing side of earlier in the season, just couldn't get a goal. Thought DNG and Harley both had good games, as did Byrne before he got sent off.

Warmest I've ever been at Crawley though, which was a plus.

I have a dodgy stomach this morning. I have no doubts it was that cup of gravy I had at half time..

From listening to the game and reading the reports it would seem that we were lucky that Creepy were one of the poorest sides we have faced all season, certainly away from home.

They were shit at scoring which suited our defence.

Byrne probably shouldn't have been sent off.

We still struggle to break down teams even when they are worse than us despite us having a lot of possession.

But we didn't lose and every point away from home is good even if all 3 were easily there for the taking.

Onwards and upwards.

Did you wear a red carnation and meet at Waterloo?

Two teams a bit low on confidence at the moment and it showed. Poor game but a point away from home is not too bad. Had little impact on the scoreline but just seen Byrne's second booking on SSN. If D'urso deems that a yellow when he's 10 yards away then he shouldn't be reffing.

Lest we forget, Crawley are in the top half of League One in November.  They're evidently not the worst side in the division by any stretch.

Swindon are one point off the playoffs.  Yet the doom and gloom and pessimism of the fans around me was surprising.  Personally, I would attribute it to the di Canio factor - compared with last season, Crawley away was a very different experience, yet our league position is not vastly inferior.  Last night was a good result - Crawley could easily have snatched all three points.  Proctor beat Wes and rolled the ball along the goaline from less than a yard out from an angle.

I think some people watched a different game to me.  It was fairly entertaining as far as League One 0-0s go, and the way Swindon seemed reasonably comfortable passing the ball in their own half (a bit too much for my liking, but I do like a lofted ball up to a big man) would suggest anything but a side that is low on confidence.

I guess if Cooper listened to fan comments on face value he'd think, well first you moan about not getting anything away from home, now you moan when we do.

But I think the above quote sums it up perfectly, to me its never been a case of what worked last time will do so again. Its not true and too predictable. But at lest in bringing on Mason and Pritchard he gave it a go at changing things. Was it too late, or was it a case of waiting for Crawley to tire?

Not suffering with that as didnt drink it all. Rankest thing ever tasted and deffo NOT bovril

I think I got charged £8 for a cheese and onion pastie and chips. I didn't think about it at the time but I think I got ripped off!

Bloody hell, my pasty was £2.50 so they've charged you £5.50 for chips!

Well there wasnt a menu or price list up so was a case of guess what they sell and how much for

They weren't even triple cooked chips at that! I generally don't eat food at football so wasn't sure what to expect! Should have got a Burger King at Victoria when I had the chance!!

Are you sure you didn't fall victim to the "bloke behind is paying" trick?

Tis a good point. I ordered a bacon roll and she charged another guy for it, he was just looking bemused and handed the cash over until I twigged and paid.

Could have been. It was a young girl and an old woman serving and they didn't really seem to have much of a clue what was going on.

That being the case, I'm surprised that you paid it - I wouldn't! If they'd try to charge me that (and hadn't advertised the price) I would have handed it back to them!

Interesting the continued comments about bad refereeing in this division. Apparently last night at P.Vale v Preston, striker Joe Garner raised hands against the Vale defender, so the referee sends off Kilkenny, not involved in the incident. Of course Garner scores twice to win the game for North End.

Some of the decisions the officials make in this league are verging on criminal. N'Guessan basically throwing an Orient defender on the floor and winning a free kick springs to mind, but I am sure there are loads of examples of ineptitude this season.

Or a failed quote

I'm used to eating Lunch in the city of London so didn't really think too much about it at the time! Also the last away match I attended was at Wembley and pies there were £6 so I guess this affected my thinking!

Hindsight of course suggests a high level of ineptitude on my part!

Not as much as 4D though, who can't use quotes properly! ;)

4D can always go to his forum and ask for help....anyone who risks buying food at a football match deserves anything they get...a sort of mundane version of an extreme sport.

Not always as simple as that
I left work at 1.30 and wasnt hungry - on coach at half 3 which arrived at Crawley around 6.
Nowhere outside of ground to get anything and after an hour and half in Redz bar was starving  :hmmm:

Not a lot of choice then

Similar for me. As a rule I don't eat at football grounds but sometimes needs must!

Glad that mason got some game time maybe in line for a start this Saturday, if ranger starts too then we may have abit more fire power against Carlisle, shame Byrne got sent off can't wait for "highlights" happy with a draw and a clean sheet. Coyr

Could you not have anticipated you might get hungry later in the day, and used the 2 hours between 1:30 and 3:30 to purchase some provender, from the wide variety of retail outlets currently available?

It really is that simple. I'm not above taking a packed lunch to an away game.

Loving the fact that the game lacked so much interest that we are now arguing over whether it was right to buy food from the ground, seek out a provender before entering or preparing a packed lunch for the game.

Brilliant!

Well yeah except the time from finishing work to getting to coach ( 2 hours ) also includes travel both ways, shower and getting changed.
I fully expected coach to stop somewhere yesterday as very rare SAS gets to a ground so early.
Saying that I did have a pastie and chocolate in my bag but again at 6 wasnt hungry ( having lunch at 12 at work ) - though did come in handy to eat on way home.

Sometimes needs must and while dont expect cordon bleu at footie grounds something edible at a reasonable price isnt too much to ask.
When a kiosk doesnt have a menu or a price list and 3 women who didnt seem to have a clue its not a good start, and as thats the ONLY place you can get something to eat before arriving back in Swindon at midnight your hands are tied.

Usually only hot drinks/beer I buy from inside the ground but no bar in away end and even the bovril/gravy was a failure


 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: more of an interesting convo than the game was for sure

That gravy is toxic, I wont go into details, but it hasn't changed it's constitution during the last 16 hours or so... as an aside did anyone see Yaser at the end chatting with someone and handing his shirt over? Oh finally, in case any reading thanks to the family that found my wallet and gave it back to me. I'd have been royally screwed without that on the way home.

I never travel away without potted meat sandwiches, a few hard boiled eggs and a bottle of Tizer.

I thought you'd be a lashings of ginger ale man reg?

I'd kill for some hard boiled eggs at this present time..

What did you do when there was rationing

To eat or to use as a bung?  :)

eating them would hopefully facilitate the other suggestion!

Back to the game

For those that didnt go and were enjoying not footie ground food, lowlights are up
First half takes up about 3 seconds


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRrTk3LRQVY

Byrnes tackle looks like he got the ball then the striker ran into his foot, never a second yellow considering how close D'Urso was

def handball although unintentional for Ajose's goal, and no way was that a booking for Byrne, But I bet the FL play the dangerous play card if we appeal.

Don't think you can appeal against yellow cards unfortunately

Although I'm not gingerist, I never got on with ginger beer. Although I might down a few bottles of Crabbies, if accompanying the spiffing bird on the ad, for a bibulous session.

Ajose could do nothing about the handball, I don't think it would have been a penalty the other way round. Never a second yellow, clearly wins the ball.

316 town fans amongst an attendance of 2868  ::)
How do they survive

By avoiding the Bovril?

The problem I see us running into in future this season is we are mostly a team full of youngsters in their first full season of games at any level with playing games sat / tues will take their toll

We are possibly seeing this with a few youngsters at the moment but we do not have the experienced pro's to be able to help them through games offer little words of advice and encouragment or even the extra bodies to be able to give them a reat and a bit of time out of the spotlight to recover.

How is Ranger unfit after 3 weeks out, he's been back training for a week surely I assuming during his time out he didn't look after himself, although nothing says he should be able to clear off and then return and walk straight back in this would send out the wrong message

314 of them by taking a packed lunch.

I think we are taking Cooper too literally.

I think Rangers 'punishment' is to do several lots of 'double training' sessions and to make sure he turns up when he's supposed to. If he does, I think Cooper has said he will consider him. If he doesn't then he won't play.

Its the kind of tactics that parents use with their kids!

We got charged £5 for pie and chips by the young girl. Maybe she hasn't learnt the art of fleecing people yet. She was quite busy getting additional chip supplies in a Tupperware box from God knows where.

How ungrateful! That was a freebie! Although the coffee wasn't much better!  :headhurts:

I couldn't see why our 'goal' wasn't given - thought it must have gone into the side netting at the time. Now seen the highlights and the handball decision was harsh. Certainly no intent, but refs often go by if an advantage was gained or not (wrongly). Byrne's second booking was not even a foul. Thanks Wooly by the way for posting the link.
Whilst the game wasn't pretty, I think Cooper has to be given credit for being prepared to try something completely different in formation over the Colchester and Crawley games. He realised there was a problem away from home and has tried to deal with it by thinking out of the box which has resulted in us getting 4 away points in two games. I can't see how 4-6-0 can work, but at least Cooper has an open mind.

With 4 players in mid midfield we saw very little of the ball in that area in the first half.Much better with the introduction of Pritchard and Mason and I thought Ajose was very good but hard to praise anybody else other than Wes,both Thompsons,Luongo,Harley and N'Guessan particularly poor for me.The most bizarre atmosphere I think I've ever witnessed at a pro match.

To be fair the Chicken Balti pie in the bar was one of the best I have ever had at a footer match.

I would much rather that than sticking to the same formation every game, a la Hart, Wilson, Sturrock etc.

The atmosphere was dreadful. Not a peep from Crawley the whole match.

Listening on the radio I was quite annoyed with Byrne at the time for being so stupid as to lunge into a tackle when already on a yellow, but having seen it no way was it even a foul let alone a booking. The ref can't even say that he was showing his studs - his foot never left the ground. The handball given against Ajose was a joke as well.

More than a hint of sarcasm in Cooper's comments on the ref after the game...

They just showed the disallowed goal, and the one that hit the post. Seen handball given like that before, seen them not given. It was certainly not intentional though. Its flicked up and hit his hand.

They didn't show the "Nathan Coyne" sending off.

One I linked earlier shows the red card etc

'Handball' not deliberate and Byrne won the ball. Stupid fucking ref.

Thanks, missed the like.

Never a booking, D'Urso is a real C'unt.

I can understand the goal being disallowed. Not intentional handball but it definitely kept the ball under control... what is the exact rule anyway?

The sending off was very harsh.

Ajose should have buried the one that hit the post... terrible effort.

http://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/laws/football-11-11/law-12---fouls-and-misconduct.aspx

The rule is simply that the ball is handled deliberately. There would be 90% less handball free-kicks if the refs followed the rule!

Just listened to Cooper's post match interview on BBC match report, the quote about the ref having a great game is superb.

Also, he was asked:

'Are you happy that there wasn't a great deal of goal mouth action at either end in the first half?' - where do they find these people ffs.  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Byrne red card a joke, the Franchise decision was correct however last night's was laughable.

Referees and football commentators (not to mention the vast majority of fans) should do a spot of revision on the rules, especially with regards to handball and yellow card offences.

Yellow card offences:
A player is cautioned and shown the yellow card if he commits any of the following seven offences:

- unsporting behaviour
- dissent by word or action
- persistent infringement of the Laws of the Game
- delaying the restart of play
- failure to respect the required distance when play is restarted with a corner kick, free kick or throw-in
- entering or re-entering the field of play without the referee's permission
- deliberately leaving the field of play without the referee's permission

I guess when a player is booked for a "dirty" foul it is officially for unsporting behaviour or persistent infringement. If Byrne's "foul" was considered serious foul play or violent conduct then it should have been a straight red...which it wasn't. So, considering it was only his second foul of the night (I might be bullshitting here...he could have fouled more but I don't recall him persistently fouling) his second yellow (as well as the first) must have been for unsporting behaviour. Unsporting, presumably, in that he won the ball fair and square....

Like others before, I thought the game was there for the taking.  We failed to get hold of midfield which given the numerical superiority of our 4-6-0  and our "passing game" was strange.

Although DNG often looked as if he might be the one to unlock the Crawley defence, he was in fact quite slow, his dropped shoulder and feints didn't come off and he inadvertently started a number of Crawley counterattacks.  Luongo and (missed chance apart) Ajose, both looked sharp and worked hard all night and Pritch and Mason added a bit of spark late on.  I may be in a minority but I think Crawley contributed to our clean sheet although the endeavour on our part was there.

I awarded the Crawley MOM to the lino running the line on the left hand side as we looked the pitch - a howler because I somehow missed Andy d'Urso's joke decision to send off Yaz (though being 75 yards away rather than 10' is a bit of an excuse)

Shit food, no fans sure but the more traditional Shit ground, no fans also applied.  Looks like Crawley Town had bought a Gazebo multipack from Argos for the roof on the intimidatingly named Check-a-trade stand behind that lino. I would have enjoyed a few decent gusts because the football was in all honesty underwhelming and the coffee indistinguishable from the Gravy. 

Still, a point's a point, so mustn't grumble.

As quoted in The Referees Alphabet by Half Man Half Biscuit!

Crawley Town dismiss boss

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25127028