A bit of a mixed bag for this issue as I am away all next week prior to the Lincoln FA Cup match and would not have time to prepare a separate article for that game.

While flicking through some cuttings to answer a query from Ivan Noel about our history with Mansfield manager Nigel Clough, I came up with a few bits I thought might be of interest, and in one case, remind us of warmer times as I am writing this with temperatures outside not much above freezing.

Palace Observer Report

That occasion would be 22^nd July 2000, and a gloriously hot summer’s day for our third pre-season friendly of 2000/01 at Broadfield against opponents Crystal Palace. As has been the case in the recent seasons, for that game The Eagles – managed at the time by Steve Coppell – had brought down basically their first team (minus Clinton Morrison, see team line-ups on report). We expected Billy Smith’s (more on him later!) newly assembled squad to be in for a tough afternoon.

How wrong we were! And although it was “only a friendly”, as the old excuse goes, a crowd of 2,245 were stunned (some happily, some otherwise) as we ran out 5-1 winners, with new signing Mark Hynes (pictured) scoring twice in the first half with beautifully finished lobs over keeper Fraser Digby. Our other first-half goal was scored by Dean Wordsworth, giving us 3-0 at the break which was cut by one on the hour when Dean Austin pulled a goal back for Palace.

Mark Hynes Scoring one of his goals

However, far from demoralising us, it seemed to spur the players on and we scored further goals from Matt Woolf and substitute Lionel Best, who headed home just before the end.

While realising it was only a friendly, it was very satisfying to send home the large contingent of Crawley-based Eagles fans with hopefully a bit more respect for their local team and also for the standard of football at the Southern League Premier Division level.

Needless to say, Palace manager Coppell did offer up tiredness from his players as an excuse as they had just returned from nine days in China, but he was also aware of just how much work they needed to do before the start of their Nationwide League campaign. One bright spot for Palace, as reported that week in the Observer, was that former Crawley player and manager Brian Sparrow (who took us to the FA Cup third round in the 1991/2 season) had just been appointed as first team coach, to work alongside Coppell as Palace rebuilt under new owner Simon Jordan having previously gone into administration. Brian had managed us twice (albeit briefly the second time, in 1996) but had also previously been a Palace player for three years. Sadly Brian died suddenly in 2019, aged only 57, but is fondly remembered by older Crawley and Palace fans alike.

Brian Sparrow in his Crawley playing days a PSF Town Meadow

Our manager Billy Smith expressed surprise at the scale of our win having lost the first two home friendlies against Sheffield Wednesday and Brentford 3-1 and 2-1 respectively. It all suggested that we were a bit further forward in our preparations than Palace, but we would still have another five friendlies before we started our season. A total of six home friendlies, all against Football League sides, seems a far cry from the sparse pre-season fixtures these days at the Broadfield.

We would follow Palace with a 0-0 draw against Oxford United and a 3-1 loss at Isthmian League Sutton United before a fine 4-2 home win over a QPR XI. To finish the pre-season programme, we went to Billericay and lost 3-2 before finishing up with a 1-1 draw at home to Watford.

All that work must have done us some good as we started our Southern League campaign with three straight wins: 2-1 at Stafford Rangers (Woolf, Wordsworth), 1-0 (Woolf) at home to Dorchester Town before another excellent home win by 3-0 (Woolf, Hynes and Wordsworth) over King’s Lynn. Sadly, the crowd were not flocking to Broadfield for our league games, with only 752 and 788 in attendance for those first two. It would be the middle of September before our first league crowd that season of over a thousand, when on 16^th September 2000 1,053 fans saw us demolish Salisbury City 5-1 (Danny Carroll, Wordsworth, 2, Hynes and Nigel Brake).

After that we would draw 2-2 (future manager Francis Vines with 2) at Dorchester followed by another excellent 3-1 victory (Vines, Wordsworth and Hynes) over Merthyr Tydfil in front of 1,162 fans.

Up next on 30^th September 2000 was an FA Cup second qualifying round tie at home to Rymans Isthmian League high flyers Aldershot. A season’s high 2,504 saw our table topping Red Devils take the lead but played poorly thereafter and were defeated 2-1, with Danny Carroll getting our only goal. There were ugly scenes following the match when some of the more notorious Aldershot fans of the time in their excellent travelling support of over 1000, led to the Half Moon pub staff barricading some of our fans inside for their own safety. Good job Aldershot didn’t lose! A contributory factor in that loss may have been that our manager Billy Smith had won the September Manager of the Month award, a sure sign of a down turn in fortunes? Sadly our season would peter out somewhat from this high point and we would finish a disappointing eleventh in the table.

Aldershot FA Cup Programme

Aldershot FA Cup Report?

Hopefully no repeats next week, when we play Lincoln, of either the score or the belligerence.

Mention of belligerence and Lincolnshire brings me briefly on to Rotherham, and the visit of our hugely successful former manager Steve Evans with his long-time assistant Paul Raynor (who I saw at the recent Huddersfield match, presumably on a spying mission?).

One of the more notorious and memorable moments which I have previously mentioned in Billy Smith’s excellent service with us was the “battle of the sponges”, between him and Steve Evans. It occurred on 25^th April 2000, away in Lincolnshire at Boston United, when Billy and Evans, who was manager of Boston United at the time, had a disagreement which resulted in Billy throwing a wet sponge into Evans’s face and both men being sent off. Apparently Billy was upset at Evans’s intimidation of an official (really? How surprising!) and was still wound up that we had just had Lee Doherty sent off, and thought Evans was encouraging his player to “make the most of it”. As a football fan brought up on the primitive facilities of the 1950s/60s, our idea of the “spongeman” would have been watching our trainer Stan March run on to treat an injured player carrying a sponge and an old football bladder filled with water (later supplemented at more affluent clubs with a freezer spray and even some Ralgex).

Billy Smith “Spongemaster”

The incident has now passed into folklore with older fans, and while researching this article I came across another cutting documenting yet more Billy Smith folklore. He was once phoned by a BBC researcher inviting him to be a guest on the show This Is Your Life when England and Arsenal star Ian Wright was to be the subject. Billy had been the one to get Wrighty a move from non-league football to Crystal Palace, which was probably the reason for his invitation. However Billy thought the researcher was one of the Crawley squad playing a prank on him, as they had previously set up forward Clinton Moore with a similar gag, pretending to represent the show Blind Date! As a result, he ignored the invitation. By the time Palace chairman Ron Noades mentioned to him in a phone call on the day of the show that he would see Billy later, it was too late for Billy to appear!

Returning to current matters and Lincoln City, for what is a massively important FA Cup second round match, hopefully we can continue with our improved defensive results from Burton and Bristol Rovers but sharpen up a bit at the other end.

All three games against The Imps at the Broadfield have resulted in one team winning with three goals scored. Hopefully that will be us this time, as we did recently in the resounding win in the league.

We first met at Broadfield on 17^th February 2018 (we had drawn the away game 0-0 on 28^th October 2017) when we recorded a fine 3-1 (Jimmy Smith, Josh Payne, Mark Connolly) win over Lincoln who, like us, were challenging for the play-offs and would have manager Danny Cowley sent off by referee Trevor Kettle.

That win was a continuation of a fine run of form for the Red Devils as that was our fifth successive home league win, a first for us in the EFL.

Neither of us achieved promotion that season, and after we had won 1-0 away at Lincoln on 8^th September 2018, Lincoln would gain ample revenge on 23^rd March 2019 by winning comfortably 3-0. That result wasn’t a great surprise as they were top of the table and unbeaten for 16 games. In their line-up was top scorer and ex Red Devil (and definitely not our top scorer!) John Akinde.

So after our 3-0 win just recently symmetry or superstition suggests its Lincoln’s turn to score three goals this time? However lets hope that’s wrong or that we score four!

Come on you Red Devils!

Mick Fox – mjfjo@yahoo.co.uk