Hatters Off To Everyone

8 min readMar 18, 2024

Another blast from the past this time around as it is an early sixties Del Shannon hit I am mangling. If it had been Lawrence Maguire responsible for the outcome, then it would have been so near to the proper title of Hats Off To Larry. The sponsors thought so as they named him man of the match. Not entirely sure they were watching the same game as us.

It’s been a while since I’ve been to a game. The last one was the rip roaringly load away win against AFC Wimbledon. I did finally get copies of the programme for the AFC game.

It was the first programme of the season. And I had written the away team season so far piece that appeared in it.

And it’s been over a month since my last home game against Forest Green Rovers. Part of this is due to poor planning, as I was away in Sevilla last week for our last home game, the come from behind win against the fast-fading Notts County. But the other home game wasn’t me. Our game against Barrow at the start of the month being called off due to the unceasing rain that had fallen for seemingly months before it.

Including the AFC game, with the Barrow game called off, there was a run of four straight away games. The third of those at Morecambe midweek was a disappointing 1–0 defeat despite bossing the game. Either side of that though were two wins, the first against Accrington Stanley, and the latter being another come from behind win at Harrogate Town.

We go into tonight’s game in tenth in the league, with at least one game in hand on everyone above us in the table except tonight’s opponents. And we are only two points off that last playoff place, currently held by AFC. In addition we currently have the best form (based on last six league games played) in the division. The opponents are Stockport County who currently sit second in the league, twelve points ahead of us.

Our away fixture against them came at the start of September and was a 3–3 thriller (one of our rare draws) and came just before they went on a massive winning streak that saw them ten points clear at the top of the league at one point.

This game was originally due to be played on Saturday, but Sky TV came along and screwed all that up by moving Stockport’s midweek game to Thursday night so they could televise them playing Salford City. The game couldn’t be moved to Sunday, as Brighton Ladies were already contracted to play their ‘home’ game yesterday, so it is a Monday night game now. Which I’m not happy about as I’d got tickets to go to another of the wonderful Crawley WORDfest events this evening, their ‘Noir at the bar’.

It is a bit of a rush to get to the game as early as I want to be, as I needed to be in the office today in Hove, and due to other circumstances, I don’t have the car today. So being able to get home, feed myself, sort away coach travel for the Sutton game and get to my seat well before kick off feels like quite an achievement.

There was a slight panic at home. I had taken the season ticket out of my wallet before going to Sevilla, but couldn’t remember where I’d put it and had a bit of a frantic search. And I thought that Kev as a name wasn’t difficult to decipher, especially when spelling it out, but there was Ken, Keb, Ked, and Kef written down before Kev was.

Had the chance to have a chat with Al. he’s had a busy week stewarding; Roma fans to deal with Thursday night, Brighton Ladies yesterday and us today. Keeps him out of mischief I suppose. Plenty of Stockport fans have made the trip down, and there were two coaches parked up before the game. Stockport were in blue shirts and socks and white shorts. There was a surprise when Paul, who I know from writing had a ticket for a seat near me instead of his usual terrace corner.

Crawley start well and have some early pressure; decent cross is collected by their keeper who inexplicably boots it against the back of the retreating Danilo Orsi, and it spins back towards the goal. Stockport start to get into the game and have a couple of corners, but we press well, and they play it all the way back to their keeper who passes it straight to Harry Forster, whose attempted shot from distance with the keeper stranded out of the area is a bit sliced and goes out for a throw in on the opposite side. The biggest surprise was there was no comment from Rick behind me along the lines of Jack Powell would have scored that.

We break again and the ball is worked across and through into the box. A shot is saved, and we think it’s a corner, but the flag has gone up for offside. And there is another decent possession and cross into the box, but this one is headed over. We get a free kick in a decent position not far outside the left-hand side of the box, but it gets played across and wasted and we are lucky there wasn’t a two on one break on for Stockport.

There is a lot of back and forth, and a couple of times in quick succession, their number 3 takes Kellen Gordon out, and is lucky to escape getting a booking. Orsi has a decent shot well saved for another corner, the third in quick succession, and third time lucky for those who like to see corners played into the area straight away. There follows another good right-wing attack and Gordon’s cross cum shot is kept out by the keeper’s feet.

Meanwhile the Stockport number 10 is looking dangerous, he has the third run and shot from the edge of the area and each of them is closer than the last. There is one minute of added time, in which nothing happens, and it is half time with the game goalless.

The second half sees a brisk start, but Stockport have come out firing on all cylinders. They have a shot which Corey Addai saves well, only for the offside flag to go up. They are definitely having the better of the exchanges and are first to all the second balls. There are more shots, and that man Addai is showing why he was player of the month for February with another string of good saves. Even if his kicking is a bit skew whiff this evening.

We have an attack and win a free kick. The ball is played into the area, and there are claims from most of the players for a handball by Stockport, but the claims are waved away, and Stockport end up getting a free kick themselves. At the other end Stockport get a corner, and as it comes over there is a Crawley defender shoved to the ground, which is ignored and there is no one marking their number 19 at the far post and he heads it down into the bottom corner beating Addai at the post, and it is 1–0 to Stockport.

At this point it seems to be all Stockport. They are pressing well, and we are finding it difficult to get out of our own half. The crowd is announced, and they say it is 3,339 PLUS 451 away fans (not including as usual), so will be interested to see whether the total crowd is 3,339 or 3,790.

But we have come to life a bit. A long ball by Joy Mukena is played down the channel, Ade Adeyemo gets there, and it is deflected into the box. Orsi gets to it and lays it back to the onrushing Klaidi Lolos who takes a touch and smashes it into the net for the equaliser. 1–1.

A couple of minutes later and Lolos is down off the ball near the edge of the area. But as is usual when there is an off the ball incident with a Crawley player down, none of the officials have seen a thing, and play continues without any cards appearing. At the other end there is a bit of confusion from a Stockport cross, and it nearly ends up being an own goal, but Addai keeps it out again.

There are five added minutes shown on the board, and Stockport celebrate this by launching a clearance over the west stand for the first ball loss of the day. Which is quickly followed by ball two. We work the ball well and it falls to Maguire on the edge of the box, and he hoofs the potential moment of glory high and wide over the Eden Utilities Stand and probably into the Fan zone. There is one more chance as we break down the right again, but the cross is too high and too deep and goes out the other side for a throw and the final whistle is blown with the final score 1–1.

Only our fifth draw of the season, and the second against second place Stockport. The point takes us up one place to ninth in the table, behind Walsall on goal difference with a game in hand on them, and a point behind AFC in seventh (and the play off spots) with two games in hand on them.

Next up are Tranmere Rovers away on Saturday, a team in decent form themselves.

Come on you reds.

Originally published on my own website (without pictures) at the link below.