Crawley Town

Crawley Town
	Crawley Town
	Template: Infobox Football Club / Maintenance / No picture
Basic data
Surname	Crawley Town Football Club
Seat	Crawley
founding	1896
Colours	Red Black
Board	Victor Marley
Website	crawleytownfc.com
First soccer team
Head coach	John Yems
Venue	People's Pension Stadium
Places	6.134
league	EFL League Two
2019/20	13th place
home	Away

Crawley Town (officially: Crawley Town Football Club ) - also known as Red Devils or The Reds - is an English football club from the West Sussex town of Crawley . After its founding in 1896, the club played for a long time in amateur and semi-profile leagues until, after winning the fifth division championship in 2011, it qualified for the football league for the first time in its history - namely for the fourth-class Football League Two . The team has played their home games since 1997 in the Peoples Pension Stadium, which holds 6,134 spectators .

history

Founding years and Southern League (1896-2004)

Founded in 1896, Crawley Town played in the West Sussex League for five years before moving into the Mid Sussex League . In the second year they won the first title in the club's history and the Red Devils remained in this league for almost half a century before moving into the Sussex County League in 1951 . Another five years later Crawley Town moved to the Metropolitan League , which was open to both professional and amateur clubs, and won it in 1959 - still as an amateur club; only three years later the official professional status followed.

From 1963 Crawley Town was then represented in the Southern League and played in the next 20 years mostly in the second-class Division One or in its southern class from 1971. The only exception and to date the greatest success was in the 1969/70 season participation in the Premier Division of the Southern League, from Crawley Town but immediately relegated. It was not until winning the runner-up under coach John Maggs in the 1983/84 season that the club initiated a significant sporting development in the Premier Division. There the club spent the next 20 years and also in the national FA Cup , he first drew attention to himself in the 1991/92 season with the first reaching of the third main round and a win against third division club Northampton Town . Although local rivals Brighton & Hove Albion turned out to be a size too big in the 5-0 defeat, more than 18,000 spectators had attended this first major event.

The next milestone was the last game at Town Mead Stadium in May 1997, which had served the club as their home ground since 1949. The club moved to the new Broadfield Stadium. Another turning point came in 1999, when the reign of Maggs, who had served the club as goalkeeper, coach and president for more than 30 years, ended. The end was overshadowed by a two-month bankruptcy process, but Crawley Town came out financially a little better with new owner John Duly . Under the young, new coach Francis Vines , who took over responsibility from January 2003, things then went up in terms of sport and at the end of the 2003/04 season the “Reds” won the championship with a gap of twelve points. This in turn also ensured promotion to the fifth class Conference National .

The first years in the Conference National (2004-2007)

In a respectable first season in 2004/05, Crawley Town was the best all-part-time professional team in Conference National and as the "team of the hour", which was also shown live on national television for the first time in the club's history, they fought for a long time Play-off place for promotion to Football League Two . At the end, however, the performance dropped significantly and the club ended in twelfth place. With the entry of the new owner SA Group in 2005, Crawley Town introduced full-time profit, but this had little effect on the sport, because the club quickly found itself in the relegation battle. In November 2005, the former Chelsea player and coach John Hollins replaced Vines and despite major financial difficulties, which in March 2006 led to a 50% salary cut for all players and coaches and the departure of a number of key players, one succeeded Series of five wins in April 2006 relegation. Nevertheless, the club was on the verge of collapse almost two months later, as a liquidity gap of 1.4 million pounds could not be closed. After two failed compromise proposals by the SA Group, the insolvency administration put the association up for sale before the creditors finally accepted a third offer, which included half of the debt settlement. Crawley Town went into the new 2006/07 season with a “black eye” and only the 10-point minus prescribed for these cases, which was almost completely compensated for with three wins within a week. Although the spirit of optimism could not be maintained, which also caused Hollins to lose his coaching job, the team ended the season in 18th place under an interim trio , which included Kotrainer John Yems and the players Ben Judge and David Woozley .

New beginnings and advancement (since 2007)

Former Vice President Victor Marley took over the club's chairmanship in May 2007 and signed a successful coaching duo with Steve Evans and his assistant Paul Raynor that had led Boston United into the Football League five years earlier . With one of the smallest budgets in the league and another 6-point penalty, he achieved a first respectable success with 15th place and with the complete fulfillment of the obligations from the insolvency proceedings Crawley Town was healthy again for the first time in a long time.

This attracted a new investor, Prospect Estates Holdings Limited , who took control of the association in April 2008 with the help of John Duly. Under the leadership of former club director Bruce Winfield and businesswoman Susan Carter, the club continued to consolidate and Winfield announced in October 2009 that the 2009-10 season could be closed debt-free after having "inherited" liabilities of £ 500,000. Winfield and Carter obtained the majority of the club's shares in July 2010 and henceforth made extensive investments in the team, which had already occupied seventh place in the 2009/10 season. In the next nine months, 23 new players found their way to Crawley Town, which was quickly counted among the aspirants for promotion. In addition, with reaching the fifth main round in the FA Cup , another success came, which culminated in a narrowly lost game against Manchester United at Old Trafford (0: 1). On April 9, 2011 Crawley Town secured a 3-0 win against Tamworth FC for promotion to Football League Two and at the end of the 2010/11 season was a record in the Football Conference with 105 points . Winfield himself did not live to see this success, as he died of cancer three days after an important win against competitor AFC Wimbledon in March 2011.

In the following season 2011/12 Crawley Town rose as third directly to League One, in which the team finished the following season in 10th place. The 2013/14 season also ended in 14th place. In the following year, after a moderate start to the season, the team around coach Gregory put down a negative series that resulted in last place on matchday 27. A 1: 2 defeat on the last day of the match against direct rivals Coventry City meant a return to the fourth division.

Crawley was not able to achieve any success in the following years and landed in the season after relegation directly in 20th place. In 2016/17 they didn't play a major role and ended the season in 19th place, before reaching a midfield position again in 14th in 2018 has been.