Crawley Town East Stand season ticket holder- and our latest CTSA boardmember- Matt Putland of Broadfield has already watched a lot of football this season. He has been an ever present for all 8 of the reds pre season friendly matches, seeing five wins, one draw and two losses. He explained, “it has been really enjoyable following the team through the pre season schedule. Whilst the atmosphere has been pretty relaxed Crawley have played some very attractive football and scored a lot of goals on the process.” He added, “we appear to be playing the ball on the deck and showing loads of attacking flair.”

Town shared a two two draw with Championship side and near neighbours Brighton last Friday evening. Matt’s view; “It was a brilliant match to watch and Hope Akpan scored an excellent goal. However the best moment of the pre-season, for me, came when Billy Clarke scored a stunner in our friendly win against Millwall.” As well as all of the pre-season schedule, Matt also found time to watch some olympic football and a partake in a little wrestling. But we say that what he wants to do in his own time is his own business!

As to the first week of the league season Matt will be at all three matches. At home against Scunthorpe, away to Swindon on Tuesday and at Doncaster 4 days later. He predicted, “I think home advantage will be the key factor against Scunthorpe and we should win, the away games against Swindon and Donny will be very tough but there is no reason why we cant end up with 5 points from 9.”

Matt is looking forward to his new role of Community officer here at the Alliance. He said, “I am really looking forward to working with Chris Cheshire as part of the CTSA Community Team, and hope to make a difference to our members and the local community”. If you see him around the Broadfield on Saturday be sure to say hello- and if you have any thoughts or suggestions about our community projects, please feel free to let him know. Here’s a picture to help you recognise him- but just to point out that on Saturday he won’t be wielding shears, standing in a rainforest or sharing space with a man who looks like he’s just escaped from somewhere supposedly secure. Well, not unless he’s in the cabin with Travel Ken!