Crawley Town F.C.
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| Full name | Crawley Town Football Club |
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| Nickname(s) | Red Devils | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Founded | 1896 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Broadfield Stadium Crawley (Capacity 4,996) |
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| Chairman |  Victor Marley |
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| Manager |  Steve Evans |
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| League | Conference National | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2007–08 | Conference National, 15th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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.
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[edit] History
The club was formed in 1896 and played their formative years in the West Sussex League. Five seasons later they entered the Mid-Sussex League and won the Senior Division in only their second season. Crawley remained in Junior Football until they entered the Sussex County League in 1951, although they had played in an Emergency County League competition in 1945-46. Four seasons in First Division ended in relegation, but Crawley returned to the First Division immediately as runners-up. The club then switched to the Metropolitan League, a competition for both professional and amateur sides. Still retaining their amateur status, Crawley won the Metropolitan League Challenge Cup in 1959.
Crawley adopted professional status in 1962 and joined the Southern League the following year. For the next 20 years Crawley played in the First Division in its various guises, apart from a brief taste of Premier Division football in 1969-70. In 1983-84 Crawley finished as runners-up to RS Southampton and returned to the Premier Division, where they remained until 2003-04.
Four seasons in the Sussex County League First Division ended in relegation, but Crawley returned immediately as runners-up. Meanwhile, club officials had decided that the club’s future would be better served by playing in the Metropolitan League, a competition which catered for both professional and amateur sides. The compactness of the league meant that travelling costs were kept to a minimum. Still retaining their amateur status, Crawley won the Metropolitan League Challenge Cup in 1959 and finished as runners-up to Worthing in the Sussex Senior Cup.
Crawley adopted professional status in 1962 and the following year they joined the Southern League. For the next 20 years Crawley played in the First Division in its various guises, apart from a brief taste of Premier Division football in 1969-70. During that time Crawley won the Southern League Merit Cup in both 1970-71 and 1971-72 losing in replays away from home after draws. In 1983-84 Crawley finished as runners-up to RS Southampton and returned to the Premier Division where they have remained ever since, albeit only just avoiding the drop in 1990-91 due to the ground grading system not allowing ‘promoted’ clubs into the Premier Division.
Stan Markham who started with the club as Goal Keeper in the 1950's went on to become the Manager at this time and then Club President before his death in 2003.
The club won the Sussex Senior Cup in 1990 and 1991, but it was in the 1991-92 season that Crawley really hit the headlines when they reached the FA Cup Third Round proper and enjoyed a money-spinning tie with Football League First Division neighbours Brighton & Hove Albion at the now defunct Goldstone Ground. Although Crawley lost 5-0, they were far from disgraced and earned a bumper pay-day from a gate of 18,301. During that cup run they defeated league side Northampton Town at home 4-2 in the First Round proper.
In 1999 the club went into a two month period of administration after which John Duly, a club director and local businessman, took over control of the club. Duly also appointed his eldest son Steven as Managing Director to run the club on a day-to-day basis and Jo Gomm became the club’s first chairwoman. In July 2000 Crawley received a record sum for a player as Jay Lovett was sold to Brentford for £60,000. The 2001/02 season ended in disappointment as a four-month spell at the top of the Dr Martens League ended in a final league position of fourth.
Although finishing further down the table in 2002/03, the season was ultimately a successful one, with Crawley winning the Dr Martens League Cup over two legs vs Halesowen Town; and also the Sussex Senior Cup, defeating holders Eastbourne Borough 6-5 after a sudden-death penalty shoot-out.
2003/04 proved to be the most successful in the club’s history. Not only did Crawley retain the League Cup (beating Moor Green), but also won the Southern League Premier Division for the first time, in its most competitive season for many years. This along with the league’s Championship Trophy which was won in July, completed a treble, in manager Francis Vines’ first full season in charge. Promotion meant Crawley would finally be in the newly named Conference National, and established the Reds as the leading non-league club in Sussex.
In the summer of 2005 John Duly sold the club to a local group of business men (the SA group or SAG). They turned full time and spent a reported £60,000 (a club record) on prolific non-league scorer and twice conference national golden boot winner Daryl Clare. However after a poor start to the season and a 4th qualifying round exit from the FA cup to Braintree Town, Francis Vines (the club's most successful manager) was sacked.
Simon Wormull was given a short spell in charge as player-manager before the club hired new manager John Hollins, a former England international and an ex-player and manager for Chelsea, but he failied to make an impact early on. A run of 11 games without defeat saw the club climb from second bottom to finish comfortably above the relegation zone. However during this time SAG reported that they weren't making enough profit and cut all players' and employees' wages by half. This breach of contract meant that any player could serve 14 days notice and leave with the club having no right to ask a transfer fee: club captain Ian Simpemba, midfielder Simon Wormull and record signing Clare all took this course of action. The remaining players did receive some backdated payments but bonuses since February 2006 remain unpaid.
During close season the club were investigated and found to have breached their wage cap and so were fined £10,000 and docked three points. SAG subsequently placed the club into administration. On 8 August 2006, a creditors' committee voted against the only offer for the club (from previous owners the Majeed brothers) by a margin of 2-1, meaning the club is set to fold. In recent times ties with the fans and community have been severed after reports of intimidation and violence being used against fans of the club.
Fans have formed a Supporters' Trust and have informed the administrators of their interest in buying the club should creditors not accept a deal from the SAG reported to be 25 pence in the pound.
On Monday October 30, 2006, Crawley Town manager John Hollins and assistant manager Alan Lewer were sacked by the Crawley Town board, just under a year after Hollins had taken over. The club had had a tough year on and off the pitch due to their financial problems; however Hollins had helped them steer clear of relegation. The fact that Hollins had been sacked didn't go down well with loyal Crawley fans, as he had helped them through some tough times and turned down other offers from higher clubs to stay at Crawley. Despite having started the season with minus 10 points due to going into administration, under Hollins's guidance the club had moved off the bottom of the Nationwide Conference, having 12 points after 17 games. John Hollins's last game in charge of the club was an FA Cup defeat to lower league Lewes where former Crawley Town captain Ian Simpemba, former striker Jamie Cade and former player manager Simon Wormull now played their games.
The club have now appointed captain Ben Judge and player David Woozley as their new managerial team. They are thought to be getting the help of former Millwall and Fulham coach, John Yems. Eventually they steered Crawley to 18th place and with it, Conference survival (without the points deduction, they would have finished 10th).
On 29 May 2007, Steve Evans was appointed as the club's new manager. This announcement attracted widespread condemnation by the club's fans, due to the criminal nature of the club's owners, as well as Evans.
On 7 August 2007 they were deducted 6 points for bringing the league into disrepute and it was also revealed that they only had 5 eligible players just 4 days before the new season began
As of September 2007 the two caretaker player managers Ben Judge and David Woozley, left the club, neither seemed to be playing much of a part in Steve Evan's 2007-2008 campaign although each player had individual reasons as of why they were leaving. Judge, Crawley Town's longest serving player wanted to spend more time with his family and David Woozley wanted to quit football altoghter to follow his aspiration of becoming a firefighter.
Despite this, the club's future looks bright with several young players begin to emerge and looking to represent the club, such as Josh Verrills who is a very keen, emerging young midfield player.
[edit] Players
[edit] Current squad
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[edit] Honours (First Team)
Mid Sussex Senior League 1902-03
Montgomery Cup 1925-26
Sussex Intermediate Cup 1927-28
Metropolitan League Challenge Cup 1958-59
Highest Placed Amateurs Award 1961-62
Sussex Professional Cup 1969-70
Southern League Merit Cup 1970-71
Gilbert Rice Floodlight Cup 1979-80, 1983-84
Southern Counties Combination Floodlight League 1985-86
Sussex Senior Cup 1989-90, 1990-91, 2002-2003 2004-05
Sussex Floodlight Cup 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1998-99
Roy Hayden Trophy 1990-91, 1991-92
William Hill Senior Cup 1992-93
Southern League Cup Winners 2002-03, 2003-04
Southern League Championship Trophy 2003-04, 2004-2005
Southern League Champions 2003-04
[edit] Notes
- ^ Crawley Town. FootballSquads. Retrieved on 2007-10-22.
[edit] External links
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