Crawley and chances of promotion to the Championship

[Husty]

League One's a weak league, you often see promoted League 2 teams do well and they easily have enough in them to finish mid table, if they get lucky and find another 30 goal a season striker they could make the play offs, automatic would be unrealistic, there are still some much bigger teams in the league that I don't think they'd be able to compete with.

 

[brightn'ove]

Nearly right on all of them.....damn!

so near.. yet so very incorrect

 

[Bold Seagull]

I still think it's lovely to see lower league Portsmouth on an equal footing with our no-mark north Sussex cousins. Crawley is probably their "derby" next season, along with Bournemouth.

Is there a lot of difference between Crawley and Pompey fans? Both seem to be immune to fretting about 'where is the money coming from' while times are going well. Even the Crawley sympathisers on here seem to be using all sorts of figures to try to convince that the Crawley business model is working - I don't honestly see a lot of difference. After 2 administrations in 13 years, an hour from liquidation only 6 years ago, I find their spending and over reaching ambition nauseating - especially given their history. It will all end in tears, I have little doubt.

 

[Simster]

Is there a lot of difference between Crawley and Pompey fans? Both seem to be immune to fretting about 'where is the money coming from' while times are going well. Even the Crawley sympathisers on here seem to be using all sorts of figures to try to convince that the Crawley business model is working - I don't honestly see a lot of difference. After 2 administrations in 13 years, an hour from liquidation only 6 years ago, I find their spending and over reaching ambition nauseating - especially given their history. It will all end in tears, I have little doubt.

I agree that a business model of drawing Man Utd away in the cup every season and selling your top scorer for a million quid is not going to sustain Crawley forever, but at least they did balance their books this way.

When did Portsmouth last sell their top scorer to balance the books then? And went did Crawley last do the equivalent of bringing in a high earner from Real Madrid at £80k a week and expect to sustain this on gates of 20k with little in the way of corporate income?

 

[Bold Seagull]

I agree that a business model of drawing Man Utd away in the cup every season and selling your top scorer for a million quid is not going to sustain Crawley forever, but at least they did balance their books this way.

When did Portsmouth last sell their top scorer to balance the books then? And went did Crawley last do the equivalent of bringing in a high earner from Real Madrid at £80k a week and expect to sustain this on gates of 20k with little in the way of corporate income?

Billy Clarke, Sergio Torres, Pablo Mills...strange none of the transfers were disclosed and all had clubs interested from higher divisions, and all dropped divisions to play for Crawley and their tiny gates - I wonder why?

 

[Captain Haddock]

If Crawley do achieve a third successive promotion to a new Football League division - and I have a feeling they might just do so - they will indeed become the first club in history to manage three such promotions in a row.

(It may have been done further down the pyramid but never into Football League divisions.)

 

[Captain Haddock]

Stevenage came close to beating them to it this season!

 

[Boroseagull]

Stevenage came close to beating them to it this season!

Close but no cigar! But they did it on budget & stayed in profit throughout. Their gates have increased to an average of 3745 last year compared to 2020 when in the Conference. The problems Stevenage will always have are 1, a town population of 80000 & 2, most football 'supporters' there are Arsenal/Spurs fans.

 

[Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews]

one part of me wants them to come up next season and do the double over us, perhaps then we can knock the love in with "good ol, great for Sussex football, loveable, liitle Crawley" on the head for good. Yes I'm gonna get shot at by the Albion fans that live there but i've lived there too, and their support is made up of Palace and London clubs, Chelsea esp. I personally think they are an irritant and in the cold light of day I hope they never play at Falmer

 

[Simster]

one part of me wants them to come up next season and do the double over us, perhaps then we can knock the love in with "good ol, great for Sussex football, loveable, liitle Crawley" on the head for good. Yes I'm gonna get shot at by the Albion fans that live there but i've lived there too, and their support is made up of Palace and London clubs, Chelsea esp. I personally think they are an irritant and in the cold light of day I hope they never play at Falmer

There is no more Palace than there is Brighton in Crawley. I don't really understand where this idea that Crawley is a Palace area comes from. If anything, Crawley is a Chelsea area.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

I work in Crawley and hardly see any Palace at the train station for a 8pm kick off, you would expect more than 3 fans if Crawley is such a Palace hotbed.

See plenty of brighton fans at Three Bridges though, but then we have more fans in general...

 

[Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews]

There is no more Palace than there is Brighton in Crawley. I don't really understand where this idea that Crawley is a Palace area comes from. If anything, Crawley is a Chelsea area.

"thier support is made up of Palace and London clubs, Chelsea esp"
that's what I said, never said it was a Palace area or there were more Palace than Brighton living there

 

[Scampi]

"thier support is made up of Palace and London clubs, Chelsea esp"
that's what I said, never said it was a Palace area or there were more Palace than Brighton living there

But you're wrong, to single out Palace. Crawley people I know from when i lived there were all West Ham and Chelsea, because it was from the areas where those clubs traditional supporters lived that people moved to Crawley from. Palace were essentially an irrelevance.

 

[kingcole]

You are an utter moron to suggest that Crawley's investment has been substanial with no returns. You're forgetting Crawley have been to the FA Cup 5th round 2 years in a row with half the gate of a packed house at Old Trafford coming their way for one of the matches. They have also sold their 2 strikers for around £2 million in January. Last summer they also only signed one player at a fee, Tyrone Barnett for 200K. Steve Evans going to Rotherham would have also gained a lot of money through compensation. I doubt Crawley are making a lot of money but they for certain aren't reliant on their owners.

Utter Moron = Nice
I think you might be wrong = Nicer