At the start of the decade we were 8th in the Conference and beating Eastbourne away 2-0.
Ended it 1-1 at Grimsby and 15th in L2.
Of games you were at, what were your highlights?
In no particular order - Bradford away, when as well as the game we won the punch up after, the 5-2 win at AFCW, Barnet away the game after Evans left, beating Wolves at home, beating Hull away, plus the promotion clinching games at Tamworth and Accrington.
Quite a few highlights as already mentioned, but I think the win at Hull was tops for me. Not just for the great performance on the pitch in beating a team who had just come down from the Premier League, but also before the game, standing in the car park and watching the long line of coaches with Crawley fans pulling in. It was also interesting hearing their fans after the game and how impressed they were with the movement of Tubbsy and Tyrone as compared with their own strikers.
Quite a few highlights as already mentioned, but I think the win at Hull was tops for me. Not just for the great performance on the pitch in beating a team who had just come down from the Premier League, but also before the game, standing in the car park and watching the long line of coaches with Crawley fans pulling in. It was also interesting hearing their fans after the game and how impressed they were with the movement of Tubbsy and Tyrone as compared with their own strikers.
I remember the Hull fans to our left applauding us reds fans after the game, classy
Sheffield United away, when we won the twice rearranged fixture. Shoes off if you love the reds. Then they sacked their manager the next day. A smug day at work afterwards
Winning promotion to the FL with a comfortable 3-0 win at Tamworth was a great moment, but we were so far ahead financially and in terms of quality of the rest that you never felt we wouldn’t win the league. Winning promotion to L1 was pretty exciting as well just listening to the commentary on that. Even better was winning our first game in L1 3-0 at home to Scunthorpe I thought then that we could really compete in that league. Although I wasn’t at the game, beating a big team like Sheffield United 2-0 away in L1 was pretty special. The real low was getting relegated from L1. That was pretty painful and very frustrating because we could and should have stayed up after being 3-2 ahead away against Peterborough which would have almost guaranteed our survival and then conceding 2 goals in the final few minutes in a game that didn’t even mean anything to them. That was painful and then that dreary first season in L2 where I really feared that we could go down and start a big downward spiral. As much as myself and lots of other people are suspicious of Mr Eren and has running of the club, he has stabilised us in the FL at a time when we could have really imploded now that big spending days are over. A tipsy turvy decade that started with huge hopes and expectations of L1 and maybe championship football with bigger crowds and bigger teams to low of getting relegated from L1 and the realisation of just how far we’ve come yet have to go to have the team and the club that we could be, to 4 years of just stabilising what we’ve got without going forwards at all. We’re now at a crossroads at the start of the next decade: do we push on, grow the fan base, sort out the infrastructure behind the scenes and have a decent training ground and a decent team that push on to the play offs and beyond or do we continue to stay as we are and stabilise our position in the FL with a pragmatic approach accepting our limitations while trying to avoid the trap door of getting relegated to the national league where it will be a LOT tougher this time round...
First for me has to be the game at Old Trafford and how the build up went before the game and how well the day went - then our final push for promotion to the Football League finally came to fruition at Tamworth and thanks to Bruce Winfield and Paul Hayward for that - now virtually 10 years on we are still in the League where more famous clubs than us are now playing in the National League and below - and they don't seem to be able to get back into the League.
There have been many ups and downs over the 10 years - usually self made crisis to crisis - but we have pulled through every time and we still have a club in the football league to support.
Hopefully in the next 10 years we will continue to grow and really get the townfolk backing the club in numbers.
Tamworth away was tops as being in the football league is everything and transformed not just the club but the whole town.
The highest position achieved in league one for league status (looking back now) was also special as was the first win joining the football league, when once again we proved we were good enough to be there and compete.
We've had some special people .... Steve Evans, yes he was special and I will never forget him getting us up. We've had some great players too: Tyronne and Tubbs, Hope Akpan (my all time greatest players to have ever played for the club) and we still have a couple of really important people still with us. That is legend Dannie Bullman and our Owner Erin. I cant ignore the money pumped in to keep us afloat. Of course others have contributed and one has his name up behind the goal, but this is the short version. However, I must add every fan of the club to the highlights. One I believe no longer comes but the flags that hung behind the goal were all highlights for me.
The away win as others have noted at Wombles was a great atmosphere.
To conclude we are still in the football league and that is a speciality of its own. The ultimate.
To be able to follow a football league club and give fans a choice in the county: follow the sheep of every stadium lookalike overpriced corporate football crammed in at a souless stadium, or come to a family friendly, fairly priced, fun and fantastic football club thats risen from non-league football to an established football league club. Thats a highlight. In the next decade I look forward to Crawley beating our Sussex neighbours. I also look forward to more scalps of teams higher in the football pyramid and moving back up to and maintaining league one football. None of that can be kept though unless we become more self sufficient and with that in mind I think Alex above in this thread has referenced challenges and choices that lay ahead.
Post by Creepy Crawley on Dec 31, 2019 9:54:27 GMT
Tamworth away Old Trafford Beating Derby County at home Beating Norwich City at home Crystal Palace away ( even though we lost, approx 2000 Crawley fans there ) The guard of honour at home game from Luton after we were crowned champions Sussex senior cup finals at The Amex Mike Jones goal from the half way line Matt Tubbs goals when we won the league Glen Morris Danny Bulman STEVE EVANS
3-0 win at Tamworth. 1-0 defeat at Man Utd. 1-0 win at Accrington (boy, did we push our luck in the first half - cheers, Shearer). 2-1 win against Derby - especially when Tubbsy nobbled Savage (he was lucky not to get a red for that). 5-2 win at Wimbledon Impersonators - not least because of that great rarity, a Danny Bulman double. Sadly, the 2-1 defeat at home to Coventry that dropped us back into league 2. I choose this one because the place was a sell-out and it showed that we can muster support when needed. A 1-1 draw at Dagenham, not least because their supporters really wanted to have a go at Evans, but he left for Rotherham shortly beforehand. The best bit was at the end hearing that Wimbledon had lost (I think, or was it a draw?). Beating Wrexham 3-2 at home in non-league. We came back from 2 down to win with a late dodgy penalty (cheers, ref, you bottled it). That was the day when I really started to believe we were heading for the Football League. EDIT: Me beating Tubbsy on FIFA in County Mall - Crawley's first appearance on the game. He must have taken it badly as he transferred not long after.
Positives - Beating Torquay in FAC despite missing 2 pens. Winning 5-2 at AFC. Beating Altrincham 7-0. String of great forwards - Tubbs, McAllister, Brodie, Cook, Barnett.
Disappointments - hiring John Gregory. Losing 3-2 to Coventry and relegation. Too many of Selim's signings, although Moussa Sanoh stood out. Getting stuffed 6-0 at Whitehawk in SSC.
Positives - Beating Torquay in FAC despite missing 2 pens. Winning 5-2 at AFC. Beating Altrincham 7-0. String of great forwards - Tubbs, McAllister, Brodie, Cook, Barnett.
Disappointments - hiring John Gregory. Losing 3-2 to Coventry and relegation. Too many of Selim's signings, although Moussa Sanoh stood out. Getting stuffed 6-0 at Whitehawk in SSC.
I was at that Whitehawk match, correct me if I am wrong, but did we have a Brazillian goalkeeper making his debut?
Positives - Beating Torquay in FAC despite missing 2 pens. Winning 5-2 at AFC. Beating Altrincham 7-0. String of great forwards - Tubbs, McAllister, Brodie, Cook, Barnett.
Disappointments - hiring John Gregory. Losing 3-2 to Coventry and relegation. Too many of Selim's signings, although Moussa Sanoh stood out. Getting stuffed 6-0 at Whitehawk in SSC.
I was at that Whitehawk match, correct me if I am wrong, but did we have a Brazillian goalkeeper making his debut?
Was it his first and last match ?
Yes - Evandro de Lima. Emergency signing as John Gregory had gone sick and left Dean Saunders to inherit a squad without a fit goalkeeper (Jensen had been injured the weekend before).
Also making his one and only appearance up front was Matt Fletcher who was so hopeless it was painful to watch. And Joe Walsh was sent off although we were well behind then anyway.
I forgot it was 6-1, we actually scored first.....