Re: Summer 2016 | Page 109

Crawley Town FC A lot has happened, since the last edition of Re: so if you are unaware, allow me to enlighten you. Early March saw the expected take over by Ziya Eren, with Chairman Dave Pottinger, Michael Dunford, Ian Carter and Matt Turner all resigning from the board. For the past 10 years, Eren has been the President of Turkish club Kayseri Erciyesspor and his vision for the future is to take Crawley Town to the Championship in 8-10 years. On 25 April, Eren dispensed with the services of Manager Mark Yates and Assistant Jimmy Dack after a run of no win in 10 games and 2 days later former Chelsea and Arsenal Coach Dermot Drummy was appointed on a two year contract. A gamble perhaps by the new owners, considering Drummy is not a household name, but certainly one that is quite exciting considering his background of coaching at two top Premiership sides. If Drummy thought the challenge presented to him was going to be tough one, then a 3-0 defeat in each of the two final games of the season (and his first two games in charge) will certainly leave both Eren and Drummy knowing there is a lot of work to be done. After winning 4 games out of 6 back in October, the Reds struggling season meant they finished 5th from bottom (or 19 places from the top!). One imagines the off field uncertainty didn’t help but it doesn’t take a genius to see that new players need to be brought in right across the board. Whether many of these are drafted in from Turkey remains to be seen. The summer break and subsequent transfer activity will certainly be an interesting one for Reds fans. which at the time meant Crawley were only four points off the play offs having gone on a run of four games without defeat in the League! Sadly that run of optimism came to an end as Town were only able to win on six more occasions in the last five months. The highest attendance at the CheckaTrade.com Stadium? 4000 for the visit of Portsmouth, largely thanks to a few thousand from Hampshire. The Crawley Observer’s Player of the Year went to Matt Harrold while the Young player of the season award was given to Gwion Edwards, who actually won four out of the five of the Awards available. The fear for Reds fans is will Edwards stay to be a part of what promises to be an exciting future or will he decide that his future lies at a higher level? The week following the end of season defeat to Barnet saw five players released including former Southampton striker Lee Barnard. This was followed by the departure of Gavin Tomlin and former Albion player Shamir Fenelon. At the time of writing, boss Crawley had just signed exciting Dutch midfielder, Enzio Boldewijn, a player described by Drummy as quick, strong and technically very good! After a disappointing season then, you might be asking what were my highlights? Doing the double over Cambridge United (3-0 away and 1-0 at home) and Luton Town (2-1 at home and 1-0 away) as well as the 3-2 victory over the then high flying Leyton Orient who featured ex Albion player Dean Cox and Albion loanee Adam Chicksen. The Crawley v Exeter match also comes to mind where at half time, I was able to have a selfie with Eddie Howe, the Bournemouth Manager! So what are the highlights of this season then? The aforementioned month of October was a stand out period, with wins at home to Leyton Orient, Luton Town and York City, together with a valuable three points at Hartlepool. Looking back, the opening day 1-1 draw at eventual Champions, Oxford United (we won’t talk about the 5-1 defeat at home!), together with the 3-0 win at Cambridge last August and the 1-0 win at Luton in March were stand out performances. But also springing to mind, was beating eventual third placed team, Bristol Rovers 2-1 in November, thanks to two goals from Rhys Murphy, 107