Football Season Review

Crawley started their season with three consecutive victories, but never managed to live up to the early promise. They gradually got worse and worse in the first half of the season, and it became clear by November that they would be battling against the drop. The worst period of their season was between late October and late January, as they failed to get a single win in thirteen games that they played during this period. To make things worse, their manager John Gregory had to leave his post for an indefinite period of time due to heart problems, with the Red Devils bringing in Dean Saunders as their interim boss. To be fair to Saunders, he did a splendid job of waking Crawley up from their slumber, as he made them more sturdy defensively and also brought in a number of quality loan signings that boosted the side, with Ipswich man Anthony Wordsworth being the pick of the lot, as he played a key role for them in the second half of the season. Crawley never had an extended run of good form in the second half of the season, but significantly improved compared on the football that they played late in the previous and early in the new year, and kept their hopes alive until the very end. They failed to secure their survival in soul-sickening circumstances, as they lost to Peterborough with a 4:3 scoreline in their penultimate game after conceding two unanswered late goals and then lost to Coventry at home in their last game when knowing that a win would have been enough to keep them out. It has been confirmed that neither Saunders nor Gregory will be at the helm next season- Mark Yates has been named their new manager, and has already made it clear that there will be a lot of changes to the playing squad during the summer.

Player of the Season: Izale McLeod