Looking back to our first meeting with Bolton (The Trotters) takes us back to a Carabao Cup second round tie on 28th August 2012, our first season in League One. Bolton had just been relegated from the Premier League and were looking for an immediate return.
Our confidence was high after a decent start to our first season at this higher level. With a 3-0 home win (Gary Alexander, 2, Jonathan Forte) over Scunthorpe in our opener and a fine 1-0 win (Nicky Ajose) at Doncaster Rovers on 25th August (and just a 3-0 loss at Swindon), we were seventh in the table and looking for our fifth Championship scalp in two years. Number four had come in the Carabao Cup round one at Championship side Millwall on 14th August when, after having the best of a 2-2 draw (Hope Akpan, Nicky Adams), we then prevailed in the penalty shoot-out for a deserved win.
Bolton were looking to present a tougher test, though, with their Premier League pedigree, and when they took the lead it looked as though our cup run was over. However, Billy Clarke popped up with an equaliser on 80 minutes and deep in injury time he would cross for Ajose to nod in at the near post for another Red Devils giant-killing.
Carabao Cup win over Bolton teamsheet
Carabao Cup win over Bolton goal
However our run was ended in the next round when we went down 3-2 at home to Premier League Swansea City, having recovered from an early Michu goal to take a 2-1 lead early in the second half (Josh Simpson, Akpan). Jonathan Forte was then through on goal, only to have the shot saved, and Swansea would eventually win it in injury time.
Just to show how things change over time, Yeovil Town were top of League One, just ahead of Tranmere Rovers.
Matches against Tuesday night’s opponents Mansfield Town have been more frequent, with our first game against them on 13th September 2008 at Broadfield Stadium. As with Bolton, this was following a relegation the season before, with Mansfield having lost their Football League status for the first time.
We went into the match with Mansfield top of the table and the Red Devils sitting third, with Cambridge United sandwiched between them. We had started the season poorly with two defeats (York and Forest Green) in our first three games, with only a comfortable 3-0 win at Lewes (Danny Forrest, Simon Weatherstone, Jon Paul Pittman) to give us hope. However, a run of four wins and a draw in the following five games – during which we started to play some attractive attacking football – had the crowds returning to the Broadfield Stadium after the difficult years under the Majeed brothers’ ownership.
Some might believe the media stereotype that Steve Evans sides never played any decent football, but we were recognised at the time as the most attractive footballing side in the Conference, with a midfield of Dannie Bulman, Thomas Pinault and Jamie Cook pulling the strings.
A decent crowd of 2013 saw us dominate most of the game, going two up through Adam Quinn and Jamie Cook early in the second half before Mansfield came back strongly, scoring late on and putting us under severe pressure. But we held on, and at the end sat proudly at the top of the Conference table.
Mansfield match details
We followed that result the following Saturday with a magnificent 2-1 win (Pittman, Cook) at Oxford United and a hard-fought 2-2 draw (Quinn, Weatherstone) at Weymouth on the following Tuesday night to retain our place at the top of the table.
I have included that league table from after the Weymouth game, pretty much 16 years ago this week, and it’s interesting to see how many of those clubs are now firmly back in the EFL, although those between us and Mansfield in the table have perhaps not fared as well?
Conference League Table 27th September 2008
Sadly, that was as good as it got for us that season as injuries to our small squad took their toll and we finished a creditable ninth in the table (Mansfield finished 12th), with Burton Albion coming top to gain promotion to the Football League, joined by Torquay United who won the play-offs.
Our financial and ownership travails of the previous few seasons before 2008 have been covered before, but I will now look back around 90 years to another time of crisis for Crawley Football Club. I call us “Crawley Football Club” as that is the name at the top of the accounts sheet for 1933-34 which I have included although, confusingly, in the accounts of the Crawley and District Charity Cup for that season we are named as Crawley Town FC.
Crawley FC Accounts 1933/34
It wouldn’t be until the late 1950s that we would officially adopt the “Town” part of our current name, with it seeming to come and go in earlier years! I suspect it was used as an identifier by the Charity Cup organiser, as you can see from the list of donations to the medal fund that there were several other Crawley-based teams at the time.
Crawley & District Charity Cup Donations & Disbursements
At the time the club were still playing intermediate football in what was still a small market town of just a few thousand people, and as the Charity Cup “roll call” showed, we were competing against other local clubs of similar standing for a smallish pool of players and supporters.
It got to the stage when, due to the lack of players, the difficult decision was made for a hiatus in the playing side. It wasn’t until 1938 that the local sides got together and we would recommence as a club worthy of representing the town (in all but name until the 1950s).
You can see in the accounts how small a proportion of the revenue was generated by gate money and how, even in those days, there was a reliance on donations, albeit not to the level ploughed into clubs by rich owners today.
It also appears that the players were still paying for the pleasure of playing and, from the term “Supporters Fares”, it would appear we were taking some supporters with the team, presumably using coach travel, much as I would often do when I started attending away games in the late 1960s. Travel expenses even then, particularly “motor” expenses, were a big drain on finances, even though we were only playing within the Sussex area.
Something that was notably different from today was the cost of transfer fees, with our outlay in 1933/34 only being 2/6d (twelve and a half pence)!
I was intrigued by the term “Punchboard” in the accounts, which showed a healthy £2.11.8d made on these. It conjures pictures of disgruntled fans paying to have a pop at an effigy of the manager or players. But then a memory came back of a fundraising tool we used on supporters’ coaches to away matches.
Punchboard vintage fundraiser
I have shown an image of a punchboard, although ours were usually based on football teams, with a player choosing a hole to punch out and release a small slip of paper which indicated if they were the winner – or more usually not. Exciting stuff, eh?!
In line with contemporary press reports though, detailing how the club had a good social membership but was short of players, it seems that whist drives made up a huge part of our income, with Mrs Hogger being the driving force and organiser for these. I believe this is the Mrs Hogger I have pictured who, when I was young, ran the shop in Robinson Road (where Asda and the flats are now, just off the High Street) where we could buy sweets and snacks.
Mrs Hogger and her Sweetshop Robinson Road
As for the term “whist drive” I will defer to Wikipedia which states: “A whist drive is a social event at which progressive games of whist are played across a number of tables which are numbered or ordered into a sequence.” Obviously pretty popular in those days judging by the revenue generated compared to other income streams, but I would guess in later years bingo evenings might have taken over?
I seem to have strayed away from the subject of football somewhat, but have hopefully stirred a few memories in older readers. And with our deficit in 1934 declared as £11.13s.0d, it appears that financial crises were alive and well even in those “gentler” times!
Come of you Crawley “Town” Red Devils and good luck Ben Gladwin!!
Mick Fox – mjfjo@yahoo.co.uk
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