Crawley Town FC- The True Red Devils

Crawley FC

Crawley Town Football Club is an association football club founded in 1896, and based in Crawley, West Sussex, England. Crawleyplay in Football League One, the third tier in the English football league system, having secured promotion on the last day of the 2011–12 season with a 1–0 win against Accrington Stanley. The club's home ground is at Broadfield Stadium. First promoted to the Football Conference in 2004, the club survived a financial crisis to win promotion to the Football League in the 2010–11 season. In the same year they reached the 5th round of the FA Cup, where they lost to Manchester United.

In May 1997 the last match was played at Town Mead, the club's home since 1949. After 48 seasons the ground was sold for redevelopment and the club moved to the magnificent Broadfield Stadium. The first match there was a friendly against Port Vale on July 24 1997 and the stadium was officially opened on October 19 1997 by the then Minister for Sport Tony Banks MP.

In April 2008, a new era dawned for the club when Prospect Estates Holdings Limited took control of Crawley from the SA Group in conjunction with former owner John Duly. With former director Bruce Winfield and local businesswoman Susan Carter now key shareholders alongside Prospect Estates the club went from strength to strength. In October 2009 Bruce Winfield announced that Crawley Town would finish the season debt-free 18 months after the new owners had inherited liabilities of more than £500,000.

In July 2010 Winfield announced that he and Carter had become majority shareholders and had attracted new investment into the club, some of it from overseas. This enabled Evans to start rebuilding a squad which had finished a superb seventh in 2009-10, the best position in the club's history.
History was made on Saturday, April 9 2011 when Reds won promotion to the Football League after beating Tamworth 3-0 to stretch their unbeaten league record to 26 games. They finished the season with a records points total (105) and also set a new record for the longest unbeaten run, having extended it to 30 matches by the end of the most memorable campaign in the history of the club.


In June 2011 the club were formally accepted as members of the Football League and the next stage of the club's history was underway. They could look forward to League 2 football.
In April 2012 Evans and Raynor departed to join Rotherham. Craig Brewster was made caretaker manager with the experienced Steve Coppell appointed Director of Football. The pair lost just one of the last six games of the season and a 1-0 victory at Accrington Stanley on the final day, secured with a second-half goal from Scott Neilson, earned Reds promotion to League 1 in third place.

Nice start pal, loving the banner! Look forward to following this:)

HELL YEAH MATE, DO MY TEAM PROUD

Really nice start Wellsy, good luck!

Great start Matt!

nice start Matt, good luck with this story.

2013-06-19 17:51#113969 Lucas_C : Nice start pal, loving the banner! Look forward to following this:)

Cheers mate got to credit Louis for the banner

2013-06-19 18:02#113975 lolbaconboy : HELL YEAH MATE, DO MY TEAM PROUD

Will do

2013-06-19 18:29#113989 Rablador : Really nice start Wellsy, good luck!

Cheers mate

2013-06-19 18:44#113993 PaukerJ : Great start Matt!

Thanks

2013-06-19 19:28#114009 The Special one : nice start Matt, good luck with this story.

Thanks alot pal ;D

The Beginning

I had played for some of the best teams in the world and under some great managers like Arsene Wenger. I have learnt a lot from them and especially him. He taught me his own way and that’s why he is so special. I started a coaching career at Ajax and never looked back. I started with a form of trainee deal and eventually became assistant manager. It was hard to express my ideas so I needed to better myself. I believe I am ready to try my hand at management but I want to start at the bottom and work my way up. A couple of clubs approached me in Holland but I was not interested. I wanted to return to England and manage there. I had my own philosophy like many great managers and I wanted to implement it into a small English team that I could build up from the bottom and rise to the top and reach glory. Many clubs came to mind but all of them were happy with what they had or they were not prepared to take the chance.
One day I was scrolling through the Football news and I saw a headline:
Crawley sack boss
This was what I was after, a lower league club I could manage and build up from the bottom. I quickly grabbed a pen and paper and started to write a letter to the club.

Dear Crawley Town FC,
I am writing to inform you that I am interested in your position of manager. I believe I have the skills that can lead the club to glory for many years to come and make sure this club is successful. I already know a lot about the club so just a reply would be fantastic,
Yours truly
Dennis Bergkamp.

The Reply

Dear Dennis,
We are delighted that you have an interest in our club. We would love to hold talks with you over the position and we feel you can bring great success tour growing club. We are happy to pay for transport but we understand you will not be flying so a car will be on rout to pick you up. We would like to give you funds to finish in the top half of the league and then from then we want you to build a team that can challenge for promotion. We understand it would be your first job in management but we have had a talk with Ajax and we believe you can be the man to take the club forward. We look forward to seeing you soon,
Yours sincerely,
Steve Coppell
Director of Football

Oooh, Dennis Bergkamp

2013-06-20 05:38#114071 Louis O. : Oooh, Dennis Bergkamp
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