| Creepy Crawley Crushed By Cowley's Crew 15:09 - Dec 23 with 273 views | RSCOSWORTH |
Merry Christmas U’s fans!
Boxing Day in proper football leagues means football matches and the U’s face one of their shortest trips of the season as they venture across the Thames to face creepy Crawley. Crawley’s “stadium” is one of the few grounds I’ve gone away with the U’s (the 3-1 League Cup win back in 2019) and it felt like a ground that should be in the National League South but Crawley have been established in the football league since 2011 with two promotions to League One during that time which is impressive given the relative size of the club. We don’t have a huge history against Crawley Town, with just 24 meetings to date of which Crawley have won 11. In fact since that memorable League Cup win we hadn’t managed to beat Crawley until the, not as memorable but probably more important, 3-2 away win towards the end of the 2023/24 season that went a long way to helping us stay in this division.
Unless we have any new injury or illness worries I can’t see Danny making any changes to the starting XI that dismantled Newport County so comfortably on Saturday so I’m expecting the U’s to line up as follows:
Macey
Vincent Young Tucker Araujo Iandolo
Bishop Read
Lisbie Anderson
Mbick
Tovide
Subs
Smith Hunt Goodwin Payne Edwards Terry Williams (Gordon if not fit)
Payne and Edwards did their case for a starting spot no harm with their performances on Saturday and Akande must be close to making the matchday 18 too.
Crawley somehow made it into League One the season before last but their stay was short-lived and they haven’t hit the ground running on their return to League Two with Scott Lindsay back at the helm after a disappointing spell at MK. They currently sit a point above the bottom two and haven’t won since they beat Fleetwood on November 8th. They have had a tough run of games though with trips to Swindon, Bromley and somewhat unbelievably also led 3-2 at Salford before conceding two late goals to lose 4-3. They were also by far the better team against Swindon but didn’t take their chances and lost to a second half penalty, the kind of stuff that happens when you’re at the wrong end of the table.
Not sure there’s anyone in the current Crawley squad that has ever featured for the U’s and I can’t think of too many players that have played for both clubs. Luke Gambin is the only one that comes to mind. A player we signed from Luton in 2019 who had spent the previous season on loan at Crawley with his only goal for the U's being the third goal in the 3-1 victory against Crawley. I’m sure there must be others though.
The weather at the Broadfield Stadium is set to be dry and sunny with a moderate breeze and a high of just six degrees after overnight frosts. Wrap up warm U’s fans, it’s going to be a chilly one! I feel this may prove to be a trickier challenge than their league position suggests but these are the games we need to be winning if we want to climb up the table so I’m going for a hard fought 2-1 victory with goals from Mbick and Read.
Up the U’s! |  |
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| Creepy Crawley Crushed By Cowley's Crew on 16:19 - Dec 23 with 205 views | wessex_exile |
Nice one RS. I can't think of too many Col U connections at Crawley, other than I suppose Tshimanga, who I think we were interested in before he signed for then non-league Chesterfield a few years ago. There was also, of course, Matty Etherington and the Crawley Wagmi debacle.
I've been to Crawley quite a few times, but will have to pass on this one with the family over for dinner. This will be our 67th Boxing Day fixture, with 21 of the previous matches won, 17 drawn and 28 lost. Best win 4-0 (twice), worst defeat 1-6 (twice), with the most recent of those in 2011 at home to Stevenage. Not surprisingly, matches against local sides Gillingham (9), Southend (5), Peterborough (4) and Northampton (4) account for nearly a third of our Boxing Day fixtures.
We have played Crawley on Boxing Day once before, with John McGreal's U's winning 2-0 at Broadfield back in 2017. Incidentally, that match was also the lowest Boxing Day attendance (2,154) we've played in front of, the highest being 19,563 at Carrow Road in 1952 (we lost 3-0).
I agree, this will be a tougher encounter than it might appear, but if we show the same attitude as we did against Newport, no reason why we can't come home with the three points.
Crawley 0 U's 3, with Anderson to score the first. |  |
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| Creepy Crawley Crushed By Cowley's Crew on 17:18 - Dec 23 with 189 views | Daniel |
A few players have moved between the two clubs:
Tom Dallison – Signed for an undisclosed fee from Crawley in January 2022.
Tom Eastman – Had a short spell on loan at Crawley in 2011.
Ryan Dickson – Signed for Crawley in 2014 after rejecting a new contract with us.
Jamie Cade – Signed for Crawley after being released by us in 2005.
Tarryn Allarakhia – Signed for Crawley after being released from our U21s in 2018. Can't say I remember him! |  | | |
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