Andrew Stephen - Hot off the Habbin Crawley Programme Article

I could not break records; so I decided to shatter them”. Dhliwayo

Whenever I think of Creepy Crawley, I think of natural charmers Steve Evans and our own Paul Raynor, the agitation twins. Using tricks and tactics honed to perfection at Boston United, Evans made Crawley hard to beat and horrible to watch. In terms of gamesmanship they made Leeds United of the early seventies look like hapless amateurs. Diving, shrieking, off the ball provocation and intimidation of match officials were all part of their repertoire of soccer skills. Of all the teams we saw in the Conference, they were the ones least worth watching.

Of course, much has changed since then and more recent managers have turned them into a decent and highly watchable footballing side. Harry Kewell introduced a cultured brand of football but wasn’t particularly successful with it. John Yems has added competitive steel to their attractive style and their FA Cup win over a less savvy incarnation of Leeds was well deserved. It was achieved so easily that they even had the opportunity to give Reality TV star, Mark Wright, his professional football debut. Will we see him at the Abbey? I wonder. They will have to take us more seriously than Leeds.

Going back to Steve Evans for a moment, if I must, he was obviously so impresses with Rob Cundy when we thrashed Gillingham that he decide to hijack his loan to us from Bristol City. They say class is permanent. Having sold the Franz Beckenbaur of League 2, it seems reasonable to expect the arrival of an experienced centre half this week and maybe one other player. Promotion is on the cards and we need to be as strong as we can be without gambling with money we haven’t got. It’s a real pleasure to see a couple of Spurs youngsters here. They will do well here. Maybe Jack Roles would have done better coming back?

Social media remains a study in drama. So often this season we see demands that Bonner be sacked, claims that the wheels have come off and that our performances are dire. Then we score a couple and all the nonsense is forgotten. A point against an excellent Bradford team was well won. Where are we in the league?

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