Tag: Harrogate Town

Apologies to Bill Haley & His Comets this time around.

Two weeks on from our last home game, the excellent 3-1 win against Accrington Stanley and the Milk Marketing Board, it is back to home league action again today. Since that victory we had one of the longest trips of the season up to Barrow. I didn’t go this season, but we scored nil again, and Barrow won, but only 1-0. And Scott Lindsey was less than happy about the officiating in the build up to the goal, but at least he didn’t have a full Arteta style breakdown about it.

That result saw us drop back to twelfth in the table, a place that sees us two places and a point (and four goal difference) ahead of today’s opponents Harrogate Town who we managed to beat in the same game last season. A repeat of that would be good.

In the meantime, since the last game, I’ve been drawn into watching the Welcome to Wrexham docu-series. Now I’m too tight to pay for Disney+ and wasn’t bothered about it, but the other half has friends with sign on details, and so it’s been on. I am doing other things, writing, and surfing the net, etc. but I’ve been sucked into watching and now I’ve seen the first series, and we are about half a dozen episodes into the second.

It is fascinating viewing. I understand why there are people who denigrate it, calling Wrexham, Hollywood FC, saying they have thrown money at it, and they’ve bought promotion to the league. (Something Crawley were accused of not so long ago as well.) But it shows just how much money is needed to run a club, even in the National League. And of course, some of the people in the series are utter bell ends, but you get that at any club (including our own if we are honest).

But I like what they are trying to do with including the community, and that they went for a club with history to build on. Rob and Ryan may come over as not being overly serious, but they certainly appear to be going about a lot of things in the right way. Perhaps if WAGMI has bought the club eighteen months later than they did, they could have used it as a how to guide.

As a kid I used to look out for Wrexham results, the name was interesting, and there was the solitary Topps football card from the 1976-77 season – Arfon Griffiths, with the unusual colours for the team and player name. it’s strange what you remember.

Speaking of history, Thursday night saw a fundraising and preview event at the ground for the forthcoming exhibition at Crawley Museum of the history of Crawley Town FC. It is being curated by Steve Leake and Mick Fox, and some of the items that will be in the exhibition were on display at the ground.

The map with all the locations of the former grounds is fascinating (to me at least, I love maps), and the finished version is something I’d like a copy of myself.

The exhibition starts on Thursday 7^th December and runs through to the end of January, with the family fun day on Sunday 17^th December being a day that shouldn’t be missed.

I wander down to the ground straight from writing and it’s a lovely sunny afternoon as I get there. The Harrogate Town team coach brings back memories and the phrase ‘Heavens to Murgatroyd’ means I have a snippet of a song in my head. The phrase is from Snagglepuss, but the clip is from a late eighties house music track, and I can’t for the life of me drag it out of my memory what the track is, and I can’t find it on Google either. It will come to me, probably some time in February.

As soon as the turnstiles opened, I was in, and had a quick chat to Al who was getting himself a cup of tea before starting on the business of stewarding for the day. I really need to remember to bring a cap and sunglasses for these late autumn and winter games when the sun is out. I’m happy to sit in the sun warming up as much as possible like a lizard, because out of the sun it is freezing. It did look like the sun was shining out of the terrace’s arse.

Grant, who sits behind us, has his son Finn as one of the mascots for the day, and looks like he is having the time of his life running around on the pitch before the game.

Harrogate Town were in an all bright blue kit, so back to the table football classic of red versus blue for the day. Crawley have the better of early exchanges, but Harrogate get the first shot on target, which is saved for a corner, and Luca Ashby-Hammond is called into action a few times in the first twenty minutes of the game.

And then, almost out of nothing the ball is played to Ben Gladwin in the middle of the park about thirty yards from goal. He has a touch to steady the ball and then lets a grass cutter of shot fly and it rolls straight into the bottom corner of the net and we lead 1-0.

A minute late Harrogate have the ball in the net, but the offside flag was up well before it was, and most players have stopped playing before the shot is taken. We go straight back up the other end and a Kellen Gordon cross is headed by Danilo Orsi, and he just fails to add to his season’s goal tally as he hits the post, and it comes out and is cleared.

Just as we are getting some momentum Jay Williams is injured and needs treatment on the pitch, and no sooner does he get off the pitch then a Harrogate player goes down and needs treatment themselves, before being substituted.

Thirty minutes or so in and we lose ball one of the day as a wayward Harrogate shot flies over the Eden Utilities terrace and probably ended up in the five a side court. From the restart Williams gives away a free kick on the edge of the area. The attempt hits the wall and the follow up shot goes wide.

There are seven minutes of time added on, mainly due to the injuries. We get a couple of corners and some decent pressure only for a Liam Kelly shot to poleaxe a Harrogate defender and we lose momentum again.

Harrogate get a corner late on, which Crawley gave away quite easily thinking it was going to be a goal kick when they could have easily got to the ball and prevented it going over the line. The corner comes in and the Harrogate player jumps at least two foot above anyone else and nods it in to make it 1-1 just before the half time whistle goes. There was some joking preseason about us signing Billy the Fish, but it looks as if Harrogate must have signed him up with that kind of leap.

In the second half it is Harrogate who start better, and they have some early chances, but ball two is chipped out over the bar and over the top of the KRL Logistics stand. It’s turning into a bitty game and Harrogate have resorted to throwing themselves to the ground to try and win free kicks and get our players booked. The most blatant being their number 24, who seconds after Williams is booked, he’s grappling with him and throws himself to the floor claiming Williams has done it in an attempt to get him a second booking. It’s good when 24 finally gets a booking for falling over and moaning at the ref about not getting free kicks.

At the other end Nick Tsaroulla beats a player on the way into the box, and there appears to be contact and then goes down, but the ref waves away penalty shouts, but doesn’t seem interested in a booking for diving either. Strange all round.

And finally for the second half there is a bit of quality down the right-hand side and Ade Adeyemo crosses it, the ball comes all the way over and Tsaroulla’s shot is well saved at the near post. This leads to some concerted pressure and another corner is swung in and Klaidi Lolos rises and heads in to give us the lead again. 2-1.

It’s a bit nervy, and Ashby-Hammond is forced into a couple of decent saves. At the other end Orsi is denied again by a decent save from the Harrogate keeper. There are four added minutes at the end of the game which Crawley see out and they take a 2-1 victory.

The crowd was announced as being 2,829 with there being 93 away fans huddled together for warmth in the away terrace. And the sponsor’s man of the match was named as being Liam Kelly.

The win only improved our league position by one place to eleventh, but only two points off the playoff places. And a win will make the post-match curry at the Downsman taste better.

The next game is away at Notts County on Tuesday night, and some better defending than in the FA Cup game could see us come away with something from that one before a return to home action in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy a week on Monday.

Come on you reds.

After a standard two week break it is back to home action for Crawley. Last time we were here it wasn’t good. A 5-2 capitulation to Carlisle United saw us stay in the relegation places. Since then we have had two away games; last Saturday away to promotion chasing Northampton Town, where we were holding them at 0-0, they had a player sent off (which looked very soft and made Jack Rolls look as if his surname was a hobby, and he’d be better off at RADA than in the football league), and with a man advantage we managed to concede (albeit a screamer) and lose 1-0. Then it was the rearranged game away to Sutton United on Tuesday night. We were already 1-0 down at half time and proceeded to give away a goal in the first five minutes of the second half after another soporific team talk, then Joel Lynch got sent off for a second yellow, and we conceded a third to lose 3-0.

We are now mired in the relegation places only a point above Rochdale who managed a win, and now three points behind Hartlepool. We do have a couple of games in hand over them, but we can’t buy a point for love nor money at the moment. And we are now nine points behind Gillingham, which would have seemed unthinkable at the turn of the year.

Today’s opponents Harrogate Town are also supposedly relegation rivals. But they also sit nine points ahead of us and are in nineteenth place in the league. We also have two games in hand on them, but they have a much better goal difference, so it really is a must win game for us if we really want to have any chance of getting out of the relegation places.

Helen and I went to the away fixture back in August in the gloriously warm summer. That game came on the back of a good performance against Bristol Rovers in the Carabao Cup, and there was some optimism of a first league win of the season after 1-0 defeats away to Carlisle United and at home to Leyton Orient (now the league’s top two). But it was a lacklustre performance, helped by an abysmally biased refereeing outing, and we played out a turgid 0-0 for our first point of the season. But it was an indicator of what was to come.

The bright sparks at that game were James Tilley (thankfully back to playing after a long while out injured), and James Balagizi, sadly injured and then recalled from his loan period. Both of them came on as subs. There have been a few departures from the starting eleven that day with Tony Craig, Jake Hessenthaler, Kwesi Appiah, and Tom Nichols all gone. Mazeed Ogumgbo and Brandon Mason may still be with us but are rare sightings (typically Mazeed started today): Corey Addai is like a whack a mole who keeps popping back up when other keepers leave or turn out to be more disastrous than he is. Only Ludwig Francillette, Travis Johnson, an obviously still not fully fit Ashley Nadesan, and inexplicably Jack Powell are regulars from that starting eleven.

After snow and torrential rain during the week, it is a cold and bright day for the game. The home games have aligned with my writing group sessions of late and so it is a case of straight to the ground from writing for me again. Another nice early arrival, picking up a programme (with no major bloopers this time around), and having time for a bit of a chat with our favourite steward Al, before getting through the turnstiles just after they opened at two.

The away support looks sparse, and there is no sign of a fans coach outside the ground. The two games for two pound each has brought quite a few more in than usual, and the odd single seats either side of our two season ticket seats were both filled for the first time since the Fulham game (and then it was us who brought people with us to fill them).

Harrogate are in an all royal blue kit, and so it is a game of an all red kit versus an all blue kit. It’s like table football, or other generic football games of the seventies and eighties when it was always red versus blue.

Crawley start brightly and after some sustained pressure where we have three blocked shots in quick succession the ball comes out to Aramide Oteh who smashes the ball into the bottom corner from outside the box and Crawley lead 1-0.

We have a few more chances with some good pressure just after the goal, but then the game dips into a bit of a morass. Twenty five minutes in we have a free kick from the left wing and Dom Telford looks to be dragged to the ground as he attempts to turn and shoot, but the penalty claims are ignored. But a minute later there is a booking for a Crawley player for a challenge which got the ball on the edge of the Harrogate area.

Meanwhile the Harrogate number ten is going around and committing petty fouls all over the place with impunity, and just gets a friendly warning from the ref for the fifth such foul in the space of less than ten minutes. Seconds later James Tilley gets a booking for a supposed dive. And a few minutes later Jack Powell picks up a booking for a challenge which isn’t as bad as any of the ones by the Harrogate number 10. It’s an absolute joke.

We move in to added time and the ball is played into Ashley Nadesan down the right wing, and he keeps beating players or dummying then out of position and takes the ball to the by line before cutting it back for Aramide Oteh to score his, and Crawley’s second, and we lead 2-0. There is still time for ball number one to be blasted out over the Eden Utilities Stand by Harrogate’s number ten from about forty yards out before the half time whistle.

A 2-0 lead going into the break, and after the promising change of half time music for the last game, it is back to the same old playlist this time out. And Crawley also are back to coming out a couple of minutes after the away team at half time.

The second half starts with a lot of back and forth between the teams. All of which is being done on the far side of the pitch from us. So much so that groups of pigeons are quite happy to come in and be pecking at the grass all down our side of the ground.

Just before the half way point of the half there is good work down the left wing and Tom Fellows crosses. It’s cleared off the toes of Dom Telford and out of the area straight to recent new signing Jordan Mutch who fires it into the bottom corner to make it 3-0 to Crawley.

No, that is not a misprint.

Just after the restart, Jack Powell blasts ball number two out over the West Stand. There is a coming together on the far side touchline, and the Harrogate player is on top of Kellen Gordon and pushing him down, but there is no action taken. There is a breakaway and Ashley Nadesan is a quarter of a yard away from pushing past the Harrogate keeper and being in on an open goal.

Dom Telford is substituted and as he leaves the pitch (very slowly) he passes the captain’s armband over to Jack Powell of all people. Can you believe that there is a more ineffective Captain Jack than Jack Sparrow?

Crawley pick up another booking for a coming together in midfield. Ball three disappears out over the KRL Logistics stand from a wayward shot. At the other end it should have been four, but there is a miskick and then a too soft shot, a corner which ends up as another blocked shot.

The crowd is announced as 3,317 with 109 away fans. I’m surprised the figure isn’t higher as all three of the home stands look fuller than they have been for most games this season. The sponsors man of the match is named as Aramide Oteh, and as this is announced he gets another chance to get his hat trick and another of his shots is blocked.

Finally after another drive by chopping down there is a booking for a Harrogate player. Which is quickly followed by a sending off for them. A straight red for throwing the ball into Ashley Nadesan’s face.

Four minutes of added time are announced as the sending off takes place. In the fifth minute of this added time the ref gives a free kick to Harrogate which should have gone the other way, the ball is played in, it bounces around and gets poked in at the far post and it is 3-1. No clean sheet and no more time to play as the ref blows the final whistle just after the restart.

And the post-match music kicks in, and it isn’t the Black Eyed Peas, but is Status Quo’s “Rocking All Over The World”.

Hartlepool managed a draw against Northampton, Rochdale and Colchester lost, but Gillingham won. We are still nine points behind them, but only a point behind  Hartlepool now with still those two games in hand on them, and we are now six behind both Harrogate and Colchester, plus we are four clear of Rochdale now. A better day all round. On to AFC Wimbledon next week.

Come on you reds.