Crawley

Have I been here before?

Just the once. On the final day of the 2014-15 season in a relegation 6 pointer. Non-football fans may wish to skip this bit.

Cov needed a draw to avoid dropping in to league 2. Even a defeat might have been enough if results had gone the right way. Of course we were one nil down at half time leading to nervous glances at other results.

An equaliser from the oft maligned Tudgay allowed me to breathe sightly easier before a 92nd minute winner from a sprightly youngster by the name of James Maddison would seal the three points. Due to other results Cov would finish in the giddy heights of 17th place, sending Crawley down instead.

Three years later that James Maddison fellow, having scored 15 for Norwich in the Championship is on the cusp of a £25m transfer to Liverpool or Spurs if the papers are to be believed.

Cov meanwhile are back in Crawley in a desperate attempt to hang on to 7th place in league 2.

The Town

Another one of those villages that massively expanded in the 60s. What does Wikitravel say?

Excellent. There’s nothing I like more than mediocre chain shops.

There were no fist fights to be found, despite poking my head into some car parks

Wasn’t particularly in the mood to start one either, there’s a limit to what I’m willing to do for this blog.

As with most new towns it’s visually terrible

And full of ugly flats above Poundland or Poundland equivalents

To be fair the old high street is ok.

Despite being the location of the world’s least appealing looking bar

The ambience spoiled somewhat by the flat above the cab office playing banging drum and bass choons at high volume.

And if you’re into transport geekery, there’s a reasonable bus service from what I remember, and an old railway signal box

Overall the only reason I can think of to go to Crawley is if you have a ludicrous layover in Gatwick Airport. Even then I’d say you’re probably better off staying in the airport and gawping at planes, even if you have zero interest in aviation.

The journey

I had grand plans of catching an early train down to give an in depth review of Crawley. Unfortunately my neighbours had grand plans of chatting on their balcony right outside my window until 3.30am

11:33 Southern Rail from New Cross Gate instead. Ground is 25 minutes from station, no complaints on that front.

Similar journey back on the 2013, although I was somewhat more intoxicated so slept through some of it.

The accommodation

Due to the proximity of Gatwick airport there are a wide variety of hotels. Airport hotels are soul crushingly depressing experiences, made only vaguely bearable by the fact that you’re going on holiday the next day. I did this one as a day trip.

Although at least with an airport hotel I would have avoided hearing the inane babble from next doors flat. Live and learn.

The tourist attraction

Tilgate Park was the number one. Despite it being right next to the ground I didn’t have time (ok inclination, I did a park last week and it triggered a bad hay fever episode). I went with number 15 out of 32. Brewery Shades pub.

Conveniently this happened to be the meeting point of the London supporters club. In no way have I retrofitted this to make up for the fact to couldn’t be arsed to visit a tourist site. (Yeah sorry, blame the noisy neighbours).

The Wetherspoons

According to the Daily Mirror there are 4. This fails to mention that 3 of them are inside Gatwick Airport and shouldn’t really count when ranking towns using a Wetherspoons per capita metric.

Never trust the tabloids. The actual remaining Wetherspoons in the town is your standard provincial spoons.

The food

Cajun chicken sandwich from Brewery Shades. Nice other than their insistence on putting lots of cucumber in it and serving it on a chopping board rather than a plate.

The Beers

American Graffiti

Ranmore Ale

Brewery Shades Bitter

Sonic Small IPA

Powder Blue

St Edmund’s Golden Beer

Devils Dyke Porter

The ground

After the luxury of Notts County’s ground, back to the ex non-league grounds, albeit a fairly modern one.

The stand opposite is called the Structured Communications stand. Which is possibly the stupidest name for a stand I’ve ever heard. Nice to have a terrace though.

The match

So since my return from holiday, Cov have gone on a run that makes them seem determined to not get promoted, hanging on to the final playoff spot by virtue of the incompetence of the teams immediately below us. What better way to get back on track than a game against a 12th place side with very little to play for.

A decent start was needed and a decent start was what we got. Ponticelli, given his first start for months as a reward for his goal last weekend firing through a mass of bodies and squeezing one in to the corner after just 5 minutes.

Piece of piss right? No. Crawley would force a decent save out of Burge almost instantly and Crawley got back into the game. A slick one-touch passing move that was entirely out of place in league 2 led to the equaliser with Ashley Young’s brother slotting in a decent finish.

The rest of the half was fairly scrappy, with the best chance falling to Liam Kelly, who having done sterling work to rob the defence of the ball, hit a pathetically tame shot straight into the grateful arms of the Crawley keeper. One all at half time.

The second half started in similar vein to the end of the first, with little creativity on either side. Then mid way through the second half something weird happened . We were quite good. For a period of about 10 mins we were basically camped in the Crawley penalty area. Supersub Biamou was winning everything in the air, bustling round the pitch, closing down defenders, and generally being a massive pain in the arse for Crawley. Chance after chance fell our way, Grimmer from six yards out decided to dither on the ball before firing it straight at the goalkeeper, McNulty missed a one-on -one that he would have buried earlier in the season and there were a succession of corners that led to nothing.

Part of being a Cov fan entails watching in a constant state of heightened anxiety. This was exactly the kind of situation where Crawley would nip down the other end with a good counter attacking move for the winning goal.

But not this time. On 77 minutes some good interplay between McNulty and Biamou led to the latter on the 8 yards out surrounded by 5 defenders. Ignoring the pleas of the stand to “SHOOT”, he cut back to Ponticelli on the edge of the area who curled a beautiful finish into the corner for his second goal. I guess that’s why he’s playing professional football and we aren’t. Wild celebrations ensued. No pitch invasions or flares this time round though.

The remaining 13 minutes plus injury time seemed to be played exclusively in the bottom left corner of the pitch, with Cov steadfastly, and correctly, deciding to frustrate the game and eke out the victory. On 90 minutes the ball finally left the bottom corner and worked its way to Biamou unmarked on the edge of the 6 yard box in time for him to cap a great performance with a goal. Or it would have been if he hadn’t completely missed the ball. Honestly I would have fancied my chances of scoring that one. I guess that’s why he’s playing for a league 2 side rather than higher up.

Still, three points in the bag and no harm done (unless we lose out on goal difference). A much needed win to get the playoff hopes back on track

 

The cost

Train £9.10

Ticket £16

Total £25.10

The distance

65 mile round trip

Is it grim?

Hmm, it’s not as bad as Stevenage or Milton Keynes, but yes it’s pretty grim.

Is it up North?

Not at all.