Crawley (h) - Saturday 26 October 2024

[Deepcut Cobbler]

Northampton Town FC (First Team) v Crawley Town (First Team)
Football League 1   
Referee: Kirk, Thomas
Assistant Referee: Howick, Kevin
Assistant Referee: Guest, Danny
Fourth Official: Mulhall, Sam

[SC Cobbler]

Really hope we see Roberts from the start in this game - but would also understand it if Brady picks an unchanged 11 again.

Can't wait to boo Jay Williams for an entire 90 minutes... 

[GrangeParkCobbler]

Crawley Town come a visiting Sixfields on Saturday for game 12 of the Cobblers 2024/25 season. The Reds currently sit two places and two points behind the Cobblers following their 3-0 win over Lincoln in midweek.

Crawley FC as they were played in the Junior Leagues for many years before joining the Sussex County League in 1951. After a few seasons in the Metropolitan League and after becoming known as Crawley Town in 1958 they sat in the Southern League top two divisions for 40 years before promotion to the Conference in 2004. After winning the title with 105 points in 2011 they gained promotion to the Football League for the first time, and after such a good season it was not a surprise to see them go straight up into League 1 the following season. Three seasons in the third tier followed before relegation back to League 2, a league where they remained until last season as playoff final victory over Crewe saw them promoted to League 1 for a second time. Crawley reached the 5th round of the FA Cup as a non-league side in 2011, and then reached the same stage the following season too.

Despite promotion a large number of players left Crawley in the summer. Among them were top scorer Danilo Orsi who moved to Burton,  Will Wright (Swindon) and goalkeeper Corey Addai who we saw in midweek between the sticks for Stockport. Promotion winning manager Scott Lindsey also followed them out of the door, taking over at MK Dons after Mike Williamsons move to Carlisle.
In charge of the team now is former Newcastle goalie Rob Elliot. His first managerial post was at Gateshead, coincidentally taking over from Mike Williamson when he moved to MK Dons! Elliot led Gateshead to a playoff position only to find that the north-east team were banned from competing in them due to lease issues at the International Athletics Stadium.
Elliot picked up his first win in five attempts with victory over Lincoln in midweek.

That win snapped a 14 game winless streak in all competitions for Crawley, that after they had won their opening three games of the season. Home wins over Blackpool in the league and Swindon in the League Cup were followed by victory at Cambridge back in the league. They have lost their last five away games (4 in the league) prior to the visit to Sixfields.

With all those players leaving there have been a number of players joining. One of those is top scorer Junior Quitirna, the Guinea-Bissau midfielder heading the scoring charts with four goals. Forwards Will Swan (from Mansfield) and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy (from Swindon) both joined in the summer and were both on the scoresheet in midweek.

Former Cobbler Jay Williams sits in midfield, he's played 11 of their 12 league games thus far, missing one through suspension. Six yellow cards already for a player who made 17 appearances for The Cobblers between 2018 and 2020. Still only 24 Williams joined Wealdstone after his release from Northampton. He was only there a short while though before moving to Kettering on a permanent basis. He'd had two loan spells with the Poppies whilst a Cobbler. He was back in the league with Harrogate for the second half of the 20/21 season before turning up at Banbury. It was from there that Crawley gave him a route back into League football and he hasn't looked back making 44 appearances for Town last season. Again suspension robbed him of a few more games, he picked up 16 yellow cards over the course of the season alongside a red at Mansfield. He returned though and actually scored in both playoff semi final games against MK Dons.

Our first meeting with Crawley came in 1991 when, as a Southern Premier League club, Crawley pulled off a shock 4-2 win over the Cobblers in the FA Cup 1st round. A second round win at Hayes saw them advance into the third round and an away game at Brighton, the dream ended there though with a 5-0 defeat.
Since then we have met each other 12 times in the League, all at League two level so this is our first meeting in League 1. Its 5 wins for us, 4 for them with three draws so far. Of the six games at Sixfields its 2 wins, 2 draws and two defeats for both. Last season we did the double, an early season 3-2 win at the Broadfield Stadium thanks to a 90th minute Kieron Bowie winner after a brace from Sam Hoskins was followed up by a single goal victory at Sixfields in March this year. Jack Sowerby netted the winner in the 79th minute, this came seven minutes after we had been reduced to ten men with Aaron McGowans sending off. The gate that day was 5,450.
Crawleys last victory at Sixfields came the season before, a single goal from tom Nichols the difference in front of 4714 fans in early January. The away game that season ended goalless.

As Deepcut has already posted, Thomas Kirk is the assigned ref for this one. 38 yellows in seven games this season, coming after a whopping 134 yellows and four reds last season. Five of those yellows were dished out in our last encounter with him, a 2-0 reverse at Fleetwood back in April. He seems to have avoided Crawley pretty well, his one and only game reffing them appears to be on his EFL bow back in July 2022, a 1-0 home win for Carlisle over the Reds.

[west stand oap]

Mr Kirk has been a busy boy with his cards averaging 5-6 yellows per game. He has not had a game since the first of the month and in his 7 so far has issued 39 yellows, 0 reds and awarded 2 penalties. Our previous meetings with him in charge resulted in a 0-2 defeat at Fleetwood in February and a 1-1 draw at Hartlepool in March '23.

An exact 50/50 record in our short history, both clubs have 5 wins and there has been 3 draws. In the 6 games at Sixfields all 3 results have occurred twice.

Crawley started the season with 2 wins (Blackpool at home 2-1 and Cambridge away 1-0) but then only picked up a single point from their next 9 games before an impressive 3-0 home win against Lincoln on Tuesday. Before that they had conceded 9 goals in the previous 2 games, 1-4 at Reading and 3-5 at home to Shrewsbury when they were leading 2-1 before having a player sent off. Other than the win at Cambridge they have lost their all 4 of their other away games but apart from the beating at Reading the rest have been by a single goal at Wigan, Wrexham and Wycombe. There has been a total of 16 goals in their last 3 games. They have 2 clean sheets but in 6 of their 12 games they have conceded 2 or more goals, They have scored 2 or more 3 times which have all been at home and failed to score 5 times. Armando Quitima is their leading scorer with 3 goals.

Our former player Jay Williams is captain and now plays in midfield and he has already served a 1 match ban for accumulating 5 yellow cards. I believe he is the only remaining player from last seasons promotion year as the others all jumped ship including the GK who played against us on Tuesday foe Stockport.

Defensively JB has little wriggle room but I think there could be changes in attack. Hoskins and Pinnock covered a lot of ground on Tuesday and JB may want them to do the same at Lincoln so they may only see limited action. I expect Roberts to start but as JB says he is having to monitor Fosu's minutes he could be on the bench and play most of the second half or if he starts he could be withdrawn to be replaced by McCarron. He may adopt the same tactic with the midfield as on Tuesday and make early second half changes. It really is a game we need to win and I expect us get the 3 points.

[Deepcut Cobbler]

Did anyone else notice Corey Addai applauding us at the end of the Stockport game?

[west stand oap]

I have seen some of Crawley's games on the box and in the earlier games they seemed to play some nice football without looking like scoring but in the first 60 minutes of their game at Reading on Saturday in the early kick off they looked more threatening. In this game they had 13 corners and Reading only had 2 but Reading won 4-1. Looking at the stats of Tuesdays game the reverse happened as Crawley did not have a single corner but Lincoln had 10 and Lincoln had 29 touches in their box while Crawley only had 8 yet Crawley won 3-0. Having seen the goals all 3 came from hitting Lincoln on the break.

[Manwork04]

I have seen some of Crawley's games on the box and in the earlier games they seemed to play some nice football without looking like scoring but in the first 60 minutes of their game at Reading on Saturday in the early kick off they looked more threatening. In this game they had 13 corners and Reading only had 2 but Reading won 4-1. Looking at the stats of Tuesdays game the reverse happened as Crawley did not have a single corner but Lincoln had 10 and Lincoln had 29 touches in their box while Crawley only had 8 yet Crawley won 3-0. Having seen the goals all 3 came from hitting Lincoln on the break.

I concur, this isn’t an easy game, I watched the Reading game and they played well the score massively flattered Reading TBH.

[guest3474]

I hope Jack Roles gets a warm Sixfields - a pitiful cheat who unfortunately managed to con woeful officials.

[Mysterious Curle]

A 6 pointer!

[Melbourne Cobbler]

Thanks for the posts GPC & OAP, I really look forward to them.

[Tabasco Kid]

I can see the starting XI being unchanged again, although I would prefer to see Roberts start ahead of Hoskins to give Tom Eaves a bit of company up front.
And maybe Mccarron ahead of Pinnock, just to freshen things up a bit, we are at home after all.

[west stand oap]

Certainly won't be 7000 again this week, may not get 6000.

[Winslow Lee]

I can see the starting XI being unchanged again, although I would prefer to see Roberts start ahead of Hoskins to give Tom Eaves a bit of company up front.
And maybe Mccarron ahead of Pinnock, just to freshen things up a bit, we are at home after all.

Wouldn’t be against Roberts & Mccarron coming in for Pinnock & Hoskins and maybe Fosu in for McGeehan too. If nothing else for a bit of squad rotation and to get some fresher players in and give the others a bit of a rest after two games in a week. Eaves needs to improve too very poor in the last couple of games.

[Melbourne Cobbler]

Not sure where, but we have to play Roberts. Hes too good to leave on the bench.

[Manwork04]

Not sure where, but we have to play Roberts. Hes too good to leave on the bench.

Quite the opposite of the imp.

[Observing]

I’d start Roberts and Fosu in place of Pinnock and Hoskins.

This shouldn’t be a game where we shut up shop, we should be going all out to win.

[Melbourne Cobbler]

I’d start Roberts and Fosu in place of Pinnock and Hoskins.

This shouldn’t be a game where we shut up shop, we should be going all out to win.

I agree, I like Hoskins but feel he is in the side on past achievements at the minute.

[Manwork04]

I agree, I like Hoskins but feel he is in the side on past achievements at the minute.

😎

[TPFKA Marvo]

I' m missing this one (empty couch). I'm at Leverstock Green (against Leighton Town) currently chatting with Leverstock manager Scott McGleish. He says playing for the Cobblers was one of his happiest times.

[Bingers]

I' m missing this one (empty couch). I'm at Leverstock Green (against Leighton Town) currently chatting with Leverstock manager Scott McGleish. He says playing for the Cobblers was one of his happiest times.

It was also mine as he kept on scoring goals. Definitely a Cobblers legend.