Are Friends Electric
Tubeway Army kick off the latest season as there is a brief look at the three preseason friendlies I managed to get to. I hadn’t been to any Crawley preseason friendlies before as a Crawley fan, I had been to a couple at the Broadfield Stadium back when I was a Tottenham fan, and their kids would get their preseason beating as I stood in the away end. So new ground for me really.
First up was the game at Lewes on the 16th of July.
I hadn’t had the pleasure of going to Lewes’s ground before and really liked it, and the whole friendly atmosphere. The seats are comfortable (they are old Wembley ones), but the leg room is non-existent, they would be ideal if I could unscrew my legs. It is also the first time I’ve been to a preseason friendly as a Crawley Town supporter. I had been to a couple years ago, but that was in the away end and as a Tottenham fan. There is a good turnout and a lot of familiar faces. With all the comings and (mainly) goings, it’s difficult to tell who a lot of the players are, and which are new signings, and which are the trialists. It takes me a few minutes to work out that if there is a name on the back of the shirt they are signed, and just a number is a trialist. We are in the new blue third kit, and the more I see it the more I like it. I am also getting kit envy about the squad’s black training kit with the red trident on the back of it.
There is some good passing play and plenty of chances created, the Lewes keeper is having a blinder, but we eventually get a goal just before half time after Ronan Darcy knocks in the rebound after another decent save. For me, the standout player of the first half is the triallist in the number 2 shirt. Flying up and down the left wing getting involved. He’s quick, and does decent work, even if he is a bit rough around the edges.
There is a complete change of personnel for the second half, and the triallist wearing the number 2 shirt in the second half isn’t anywhere near as involved as the one in the first half. Another triallist, wearing the number 12 shirt scores a second goal for us, but that concluded our scoring for the game. Jay Williams is on, and he really doesn’t understand the concept of friendly — whoosh — through anybody and anything. Scott Lindsey is giving the ref verbals about a few decisions, and the ref gets to the point where he’s had enough and marches over to tell Scott to keep his opinions to himself. Scott is still chuntering away later in the half and a fan yells from the crowd ‘let it go Scott, it’s only a friendly’, Scott turns around with a smile and asks, ‘what’s that?’
We need to get a CTFC scarf up on the wall with all the other club’s ones.
I did toy with writing a full match report but was on a bit of a writing CBA then. I had a killer title lined up as well — “Out Of The Dripping Pan And Into The Dire”. But we weren’t that bad.
Roll on East Grinstead on Saturday. Which followed on the 20th of July.
East Grinstead are certainly taking their wasps nickname serious. Perhaps this is where Wiz Khalifa got his inspiration for “Black And Yellow”. Everything is decked out in black and yellow, even the goal nets.
We look as if it is pretty much a first XI to play the first half. The ground is filling up nicely, and it’s not a bad ground, not as good as the Dripping Pan on Tuesday night though. As people are coming to their seats and to stand around the perimeter of the pitch a lot are carrying beers. I wonder what level does no drinking in sight of the pitch go down to? Or does it not apply for preseason friendlies?
A few notes from me on the game. There was a decent sized crowd, and always interesting to see people changing what end they stand in at half time, following their team’s goalmouth action (hopefully).
I think it was almost a full strength first XI for the first half, and they did look quite cohesive. They were wearing their white second kit, there looks to be a lot more grey in it than there looked at the kit launch.
Didn’t hear what the two minutes silence was for as their PA system doesn’t make it out as far as the seats, but it was well respected. Jeremy Kelly was playing in the position vacated by his namesake Liam, and I thought he did a decent job there. Jay Williams opened the scoring with a well taken goal from outside the area. He really has no chill at all and could easily start a fight in a phone box, it is a worry as to just how many yellow cards he’s going to rack up in the forthcoming season.
Rushian Hepburn-Murphy is not inspiring confidence as our main (only) striker. He works hard but the finishing looks woeful. There is a lack of composure. One shot cleared the ground, and headed off through the trees and the last time anyone checked it was halfway down the A264 on its way to Tunbridge Wells.
Everything seemed to come down our left-hand side, Harry Forster doesn’t quite look fully fit yet. On the other side Malone got himself into acres of space numerous times but rarely saw the ball and took a knock just before half time and was subbed off.
A complete change at half time saw us field five trialists in the second half. The number nine showed some of the composure RHM is missing and slotted in a nice second goal. Ade Adeyemo was immense. Raf played well in that central midfield pivot role, and I told him so when I saw him on his way into EG train station after the match (by himself — a bit strange I thought), he seems quite shy. I hope he gets more game time this season, even if it is off the bench.
Gonzalez showed flashes, but looks a bit raw, but does seem to link up well with Adeyemo down the right. And although he didn’t see as much of the ball as on Tuesday night, the left wing back trialist in the number 2 shirt still looked useful when he did get the ball.
Overall, it was a reasonable pair of performances, albeit against much lower league opposition. But as Sooty and others have been saying repeatedly, we desperately need additional strikers.
As for EG, none of them stood out as much as the Lewes number 4 did on Tuesday night, but I did wonder if their sub in the number 12 shirt was wearing number 12 because that’s his squad number, or because that’s a reminder as to how old he was.
And finally, their number 15 inspired me no end. So much so that I decided to walk home to Southgate from EG along the Worth Way (which is how I saw Raf going into the station). I thought that if I lose a couple of more pounds and sharpen my fitness a bit, then I too might be able to win a raffle and get a game with some club or other.
The next Tuesday saw an away game against Wealdstone, too much of a trek on a working day for me, and it was a 1–0 loss.
Although I didn’t go to the Palace game, Helen did, and I missed a goal fest and by all accounts some great comedy defending, with it finishing as a 6–3 loss. RHM scored a couple which will hopefully settle him down.
And he scored in the Tuesday night game away at Aldershot, one of those places that is a pain in the arse to get to at the best of times, let alone on a Tuesday evening after work. After scoring we gave away a comedy goal within a minute but got another in the second half to win 2–1.
Then on to the final preseason friendly. You would think that two hours should be more than enough to get to Ebbsfleet from Crawley, but no period ever seems to be enough when having to deal with the vagaries of the M25, with two long hold ups, which seemed to be caused by people who don’t know how to drive on the motorway. And then Google maps was its shitty self, sending us round the houses (literally) to get to the car park.
First impression of the Ebbsfleet ground was the stand on the main road looks good, and even redder than our own. If only they could spell cufflink properly. The signs pointed us the wrong way, seeing as there was no segregation, signs to the away end were redundant, but fortunately a woman told us there was only the one entrance before we’d gotten all the way around.
They have a ladies toilet block, so despite being non-league they are already ahead of Mansfield Town in the facilities stakes.
We got there about ten minutes in, and it was 0–0, and for most of the first half it seemed like there was a forcefield at the halfway line preventing Crawley from attacking. I don’t know what the first ten minutes were like, but for most of the rest of the half we were having plenty of defending practise. Dion Conroy went down a couple of times with injuries in the first half and was subbed at half time. It took until the forty-third minute for us to see Crawley get a shot off, and RHM put it just wide and over after some decent work from Malone (for some reason all I can think of now is ‘cockles and mussels, alive, alive-o’).
In the blue away kit, and I noticed we now have short sponsors. Beaufort. Now, I have no idea what the company Beaufort does, but I have heard of the Beaufort Scale, which is what they use to measure wind speeds. Does this mean we now have indicators with the squad numbers as to how many tins of beans each of the players have been eating?
I have a wander about at half time and again quite like the ground. You can see that the new shiny stand is a change of sides for the main stand. The seats have plenty of leg room compared to the ones on the other side, and that stand still has the old brick built dug outs in place. You wonder if it gets a bit too feisty on the sidelines whether one side can bugger off and use the set on the other side. It is an interesting ground, looking out from it you can see the old fossil fuel industry of the area with a refinery in the background,
and then further along, the more modern renewables shows its face with wind turbine tips rotating above the top of the trees,
and pylons carry lines over one corner of the ground.
We come out much better in the second half, I think there may well have been a lot of ‘enthusiasm’ from Scott at half time. And when Ade Adeyemo and Harry Forster come on just after the hour mark it was easy to see the jump in intensity and attacking threat those changes brought.
Ebbsfleet brought former Crawley player Tom Dallinson on at seventy minutes. I happened to bump into his dad in the toilets when leaving after the game and he was saying how much Tom enjoyed his time playing for us.
A couple of minutes after he came on, we scored. A cross-field ball took a slight deflection straight into Forster’s path, he took it into the area and his shot took a slight deflection as well and went in the top corner.
Although we were better going forward, it is clear to see we are still susceptible to pace at the back. And to the soft own goal. And on eight six minutes that is what happened, a pacy attack down the left saw a cross come in and Joy Mukena (I think) prod it in from a few yards out. It could have been worse as in injury time another cross from the left ended up hitting the crossbar, and not long after the final whistle went.
It was probably a fair result, but it doesn’t inspire masses of confidence for the step up in opposition when the season starts next weekend.
The crowd was announced as 885, no idea how many Crawley fans there were there, as both sets of fans were in red and they were inter-mingled and spread out all over the place in their 5k or so capacity ground.
After the game Utred recognised me from my terrible profile picture and introduced himself, and a few Ebbsfleet fans came up and wished us well for the new season as we were leaving. And the journey home wasn’t anywhere near as painful as the one going.
It’s been good fun getting to the friendlies, seeing a few new grounds, and having that totally different atmosphere from competitive and segregated games during the season. How much of a serious guide it gives to the season ahead is debateable though. But there have been enough flashes to give even an eternal pessimist like me some cause for optimism for the forthcoming season.
Come on you reds.
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