Crawley Town F.C

Wellcome to the Crawley Town F.C thread.

Crawley Town Football Club is an English football team from Crawley, West Sussex.

They compete in the Conference National division of the Football Conference, the highest level of the National League System and fifth highest of the overall English football league system.

Formed in 1896 Crawley Town began life in the West Sussex League where they remained for fives years before transferring to the Mid-Sussex League, winning the League in only their second season.

They stayed at this level until they entered the Sussex County League in 1951 before switching again 5 years later to the Metropolitan League. The league was a competition for both professional and amateur sides. Crawley retained their amateur status and went on to win the Metropolitan League Challenge Cup in 1959.

Crawley turned professional in 1962 and the following year they joined the Southern League First Division. In 1969 they were promoted to Premier Division of the Southern League but the joy was short lived as the following they were relegated back to the first division where they remained until the 1983-84 season when they were promoted as runners-up.

The club have enjoyed many cup successes, winning the Sussex Professional Cup in 1970, the Gilbert Rice Floodlight Cup in 1980 and 1984, the Southern Counties Combination Floodlight Cup in 1986, and the Sussex Senior Cup in 1990 and 1991. The Sussex Floodlight Cup was won in three consecutive years from 1991 to 1993 and also again in 1998/9.

Despite several cup successes Crawley's most successful cup run was in the 1991-92 season when they reached the The FA Cup third round proper. The club enjoyed a money-spinning tie with Football League neighbours Brighton & Hove Albion at the Goldstone Ground in front of 18,301 fans. During the cup run they defeated Third Division Northampton Town at home 4-2 in the First Round.

The club’s most successful period came under manager Francis Vines and began in January 2003. The Reds ended that season strongly, finishing seventh in the Southern League and winning the League Cup and Sussex Senior Cup.

The following year, The Red Devils signed off their 20-season stay in the Premier Division of the Southern League by wrapping up the championship in convincing style, ending up 12 points clear of the field and adding their second successive League Cup success and the league’s Championship Match trophy. The title was wrapped up with four matches remaining, as a 3-0 victory at Welling sparked emotional celebrations from a large travelling contingent. Crawley would now be playing in the Football Conference the highest level of Non-League football for the first time in their history.

A final position of 12th in their first season in the national division was an amazing achievement for the club who finished as the highest ranked part-time team in the country. Crawley also retained the Sussex Senior Cup by defeating Ringmer.

In 2005 the SA Group bought the club and made the decision to go Full-Time for the first time in the clubs history. Although the club going Full-Time was necessary in order to allow them to compete in the division [1], it led to the departure of several key players including fans favourite Charlie MacDonald and Goalkeeper Andy Little who were unable to give up their day jobs to play Full-Time.

The 2005-06 season didn't start well for Crawley as the club found themselves 3rd from bottom and out of the FA Cup after a shock defeat to Braintree Town. Francis Vines was subsequently sacked and replace by former Chelsea FC manager and player John Hollins and his assistant Alan Lewer.

Things got worse for Crawley as attendances dropped so to did the clubs income, the club owners were forced to slash the players and staff wages by 50% due to lack of funds. Several key players left the club including captain Ian Simpemba, Simon Wormull and record signing Daryl Clare, it looked certain that relegation was on the cards. [2] However 5 straight wins through March and April saw the club climb the table to 17th place and remarkably beat the drop by 10 points. The club were deducted 3 points at the end of the season for breaching the annual playing budget but this had no effect on the final standings and Crawley's league status was safe but they later went into administration.

In August 2006 it was announced that the club would fold due to their debts and they came within an hour of the liquidation deadline, however a last minute rescue package saved the club and allowed them to carry on playing, albeit with a 10 point deduction for entering administration.

Crawley started the 2006-07 season by winning their opening 3 games and all but wiped out their 10 point deduction. The following month however the clubs formed dipped and this led to John Hollins and Alan Lewer losing their jobs, the news didn't go down well with the fans as the pair stuck with Crawley when others decided to leave and they managed to lift the club off the bottom despite a 10 point deduction..

They were replaced by players Ben Judge and David Woozley with the help of John Yems the former Fulham FC and Millwall FC coach. Life started well for the trio who picked up 10 points from a possible 12. Crawley finished 18th in the division and managed to beat the drop after securing the point they needed on the final day of the season.

For the start of the 2007-08 season a new regime was put into place which included Victor Marley as club Chairman and Steve Evans as manager with Paul Raynor as assistant. The season didn't get off to the best of starts as the club was deducted 6 points due to their financial standing. Crawley finished the season in a respectable 15th place and were runners-up in the Sussex senior cup despite the clubs financial position and points deduction.

In April 2008 Prospect Estate Holdings Limited took control of Crawley after buying it from the SA Group in conjunction with former owner John Duly. The clubs financial worries were over and the club could look to build again and start the 2008-09 season on a level playing field. The season started well for Crawley who sat at the top of the table for much of the opening of the campaign, Crawley then hit a bad patch but they did manage to remain in the play-off places for most of the season. However 2009 got off to bad start for Crawley as they were deducted 4 points for fielding an unregistered player (Isaiah Rankin), on 26 January 2009 Crawley announced that they would appeal the decision and therefore the points deduction has been put on hold. [3]

It was later announced that the appeal would be heard on 29 February 2009 [4].

Since then Crawley continued to drop of the pace and they found themselves out of the Playoff places for the first time this season. With a 4 point deduction looking almost certain and the sale of star striker and top scorer Jon-Paul Pittman to Wycombe Wanderers [5] on transfer deadline day, Crawley's promotion hopes appeared to be fading.

However Crawley Town later won their appeal and had their 4 point deduction was reduced to just 1, leaving the club in 9th place and giving them a slim but possible chance of making the play-offs.[6]

Current squad

No. Position Player

1 GK Simon Rayner

2 DF Santos Gaia

3 DF Sam Rents

4 MF Simon Weatherstone

5 DF Chris Giles

6 DF Jake Wright

7 FW Danny Forrest

8 MF Dannie Bulman

9 FW Robbie Matthews

10 MF Thomas Pinault

11 MF Jamie Cook

12 DF Gavin Hurren

14 FW Lewis Killeen

16 DF Glenn Wilson

17 FW Isaiah Rankin

18 MF Ben Gill

19 MF Nick Carter

20 FW Mithun Nayee

21 DF Adam Quinn

23 FW Danny Mills

24 FW Jon Shaw (on loan from Rochdale)

25 MF Michael Malcolm

— FW Anton Douglas

— DF Bradley Thomas

3 threads in 1 day!!!!!

Personally unless you playing as the team i think making the threads is abit pointless

3 threads in 1 day!!!!!

Makes sure you keep the threads active!

I am, i'm playing a 5 user game all in blue square (seeing whitch team is best in 3 years game time, not real!!!)

Good idea

Why isn't any Crawley Town thead here for fm11?

Anyway í started game with Crawley last week and I won Bet Premier in first season and after 28 games in League Two I'm 3rd..

Why isn't any Crawley Town thead here for fm11?

Anyway í started game with Crawley last week and I won Bet Premier in first season and after 28 games in League Two I'm 3rd..

I agree with you mate. They are like the Manchester City of this division and got good players, I was them in the demo but I did'nt know too much about the players apart from the strikers and I did not want to overwrite my team with signings. Anyway how did you do and who was your stand out players?

Got 3rd in League Two in my second season.. Christian Gimenez was my best player in BSP..

My transfer first season BSP:

R.Brown loan from United

W.Keane loan from United

Tunnicliffe loan from United

Pogba loan from United

Marek Stech loan from West Ham

Lionel Djebi-Zadi free

Richard Hastings free

Ismael Forfana free

Gifton Noel-Williams free

P. Younghusband free

Ibrahim Sissoko free

Christian Gimenez free

Christian Nanetti free

Simon Cox free

Won BSP and also FA trophy

Second season League Two

Dalla Valle Loan from Fulham

W.Keane loan from United

R.Brady loan from United

P.Pogba loan from United

S.Johnstone loan from United

M. Keane free from United

Martin Hansen free from Lpool

Nick Ajose free from United

O.Norwood free from United

Antonhy Edgar free

Sean McGinty free from United

Scott Wootton free from United

Luke Freeman free from Arsenal

Danny Hoesen free

J.Younghusband free

Adam Drury Free

3rd and got promotoed

Hope my board will give my some funds to spend for League One!!

Won the league in my first season

this thread needs keeping alive ....

anyway - Players in

scott wootton ( season loan)

oliver norwood (season loan)

will keane ( season loan )

robbbie brady (season loan)

nather baker (3 month loan)

eric lichaj (3 month loan)

navarro (55k- brighton)

van der meyde ( free )

OUT

none yet

currently 2nd behind luton just coming up to christmas. would love to hear from others managing crawley

What are the finances like on the new patch?

What are the finances like on the new patch?

Winner: £190k transfers/£28.5k wages

Promotion: £170k/£27k

Playoffs: £150k/£26k

£24.5k of the wage budget is already in use, with £537k in the bank.

So quite an improvement.. or am i wrong?

Surely they should have more money?