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,
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