Well, perhaps the way we\u2019ve been playing recently, it hasn\u2019t really been much of a thrill for the watching fans attending games. But Scott Lindsey is now gone, and on a positive note, there was the tremendous experience of the Wembley win in the playoffs less than two years ago. A lot of people have done this song, but I\u2019m going for the BB King version, the best-known version, but a 1969 cover of the original done by Roy Hawkins in 1951. It didn\u2019t chart in the UK but did reach number fifteen in the US charts in 1970.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quiz Time Answer \u2013 Fleetwood Town have the nickname of \u2018The Cod Army\u2019, but which other League Two side used to have someone holding a large freshly caught cod for the players to touch for luck as they ran onto the pitch? Grimsby Town, and there will be photographic proof in the piece when we play them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the quiz answer coming from the last piece, a few words about the originally published version. I don\u2019t know what my fingers were doing, but it was all over the shop, words missing, wrong words used, letters missing from words, letters added to words, non-sensical punctuation. It looked more like a blind, dyslexic chimpanzee had written it after ten pints. I only noticed any of this as I was editing it down ready for that report\u2019s inclusion in today\u2019s programme. Ellywelly1 would have been apoplectic, as although he\u2019s not on the forum being the grammar police, he did pop up on the BBC comments page of the game against Fleetwood berating someone for their grammar use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, after correcting the dozen or so errors late on Sunday night, I flicked onto Facebook to find that at five to eleven Crawley Town had stuck the announcement that Scott Lindsey and Neil Smith \u2018have left the club\u2019. It had been coming, some will say it\u2019s too late, or it\u2019s well overdue. As I\u2019ve stated before, I don\u2019t believe he should have come back at all. Two years on from it being the right man in the right place at the right time with the right combination of players, instead of going to the last day being in a battle with Barrow for the last play-off spot, we are instead battling with them to avoid relegation from the football league. Not a place anyone needs to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The club also announced that the players and owner were going to subsidise coach travel for fans to go to the Newport County game on Good Friday, which is a positive step. It\u2019s far too long a journey for me to be on a coach, I struggled on the one coach I\u2019ve been on this season on the trip to Bromley. So it\u2019s train and an overnight stay for Helen and me instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then they have allowed Antony Papadopoulos to go out on loan to Chelmsford City for the rest of the season. It\u2019s good that he\u2019s going to get some playing time, but it is a shame just how much he has been dicked around by the club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And after many media outlets had said it on Tuesday afternoon and evening, the club finally confirmed just before half ten at night that the new head coach until the end of the season will be ex-Premier League, ex-Champions League, and Turkish International player, Colin Kazim-Richards, would be the new head coach. He has been coaching within the youth setup at Arsenal, a career path previously seen at the club at the start of our last relegation from League Two haunted season when we had Kevin Betsy in charge. It\u2019s a risk, and if the results go the same way as the start of that Betsy reign, then we are fucked. So let\u2019s hope it isn\u2019t. Let\u2019s hope it is a successful gamble. And let\u2019s welcome him with a quick look at some cards and stickers he\u2019s been on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He started his career at Bury, but in June 2005, at the age of 18, he ended up just down the A23 at Brighton & Hove Albion. The contract was signed after a fan of the club, Aaron Berry, won the \u00a3250k for the club to sign him in a competition run by Coca-Cola which, in turn, led to him being known as the “Coca-Cola Kid”. And in positive news he hasn\u2019t mentioned anything about Xylophones Gathered (XG) yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CTSA released the minutes of their AGM from the previous week. From the minutes what did surprise me is the general low level of attendance, and how they are struggling for board members (a thankless task I would imagine having done similar roles for other organisations), and the low numbers actually in the reds rollover draw. It does make me wonder if the new shiny FAB is going to put more of a strain on that. Which I think would be a shame. Personally, I am a member but didn\u2019t attend as it was on Zoom. I hate things on Zoom, in my job I\u2019m on multiple Teams calls during the day, so anything in my own time on Zoom or Teams is not going to fly, especially at the moment whilst I\u2019m off work with depression\/anxiety\/stress, I don\u2019t need reminding of that work environment. (Somewhat bizarrely, watching Crawley isn\u2019t making it worse, the football is one of only two things that are keeping me tethered to any kind of reality, even if it is getting somewhat obsessive football overload which I\u2019m then offloading to anyone reading this.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Thursday it was announced that Danny Cashman was going out on loan to Sutton United for the remainder of the season. He has been out injured for most of the season, so if he is coming back, it makes sense for it to be a loan move out rather than chucking him in the deep end of a relegation dog fight which probably wouldn\u2019t be the best for anyone concerned at this stage. Let\u2019s survive and then get him back fit to play next season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friday saw a new sponsor announced for the goal of the month competition (Lindfield Coffee Works), let\u2019s hope that caffeine boost makes it a more open competition going forward than it was in, say, February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then late on Friday night it was announced that Julian Gray was joining as assistant manager. He\u2019s another former member of the Arsenal academy and has come from being lead coach of the under 15\u2019s at Birmingham City and he holds a UEFA A licence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Going back to the bookshop visit last week, it does seem as if I\u2019m regressing back to childhood, there was one book from the year I was born, the World Football Handbook 1970 is a more text heavy, less figures-based forerunner to the Rothmans yearbook which started a couple of years later. Score would have been a comic I\u2019d get from time to time, and the Shoot annual and quiz book probably book end the years I used to get Shoot, as by the mid-eighties, I\u2019d probably moved onto Match instead (more figures included).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have played Gillingham seven times in League Two before, with two wins, two draws, and three losses. Then four games against them in League One, with a win, a draw, and two losses. We\u2019ve played them five times in the various names of the Football League Trophy, a single win and four losses (including our first ever game in the competition back in 2005 when conference sides were invited into the competition instead of the under 21 sides), and a loss on penalties against them in the League Cup. It\u2019s not a great record. Although our away draw against them back in November was probably our best away performance (if not result) of the season. There are a few programmes in the collection from games against them over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in a batch of random programmes which arrived during the week there was this one from 1983 for a Division Three fixture against Southend United.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the team for Gillingham that day were two players who moved on to topflight football and were both included in the Proset 1990-91 card set \u2013 Steve Bruce and Tony Cascarino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsewhere Gillingham were at a level where they did get included in a couple of Panini albums in the mid-eighties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And of course they are in this year\u2019s Panini EFL collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Gillingham players they have included in that collection, they have Glenn Morris who we signed from them in 2016, and then he went on loan back there before signed permanently for them again in 2023. We originally signed Scott Malone from Gillingham, before he left and rejoined us this season. (he\u2019s won their player of the season for two of the last three years). There has been a lot of overlap of players over the years and others to play for both include John Akinde, Jack Payne, Jake Hessenthaler, Mark Marshall, Luke Rooney, Luca Ashby-Hammond, Josh Wright, Tom Nichols, Ashley Nadesan, Tyrone Berry, Mustapha Caravol, Barry Cogan, Michael Doughty, Connor Essam, Kevin James, Rhys Murphy, Stuart Nelson, Aiden O\u2019Brien, Jordan Roberts, Ben Strevens, Gavin Tomlin, Romain Vincelot, Matty Willock, and Will Wright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We go into the day five places and fourteen points behind Gillingham, who aren\u2019t on a great run of form themselves. It might have changed before kick-off as Harrogate are at home in an early kick-off against Notts County, who will hopefully be better than they were against Oldham Athletic midweek. Newport County and Barrow both have home games as well, Barrow are playing top of the table Bromley, whilst Newport have an easier game (on paper) against Shrewsbury Town. Above us, for some reason Tranmere Rovers don\u2019t have a game this weekend (there\u2019s not even one on the list as postponed for international call-ups \u2013 speaking of which we will be missing Jonny Russell today as he\u2019s in the Northern Ireland u21\u2019s squad).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was straight to the game from writing group. It\u2019s the group I help run and this session was linked to Crawley WORDfest, and so our little annual booklets have been done with work from the group written in the session in them. If anyone is interested in having one then let me know, we may have some spares left over (they are free).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From one set of printed words to another, as the next edition of the programme was on sale before the game, along with some reprints of the Swindon Town one. Steve was doing a sterling job selling again and we sold out about twenty minutes before kick-off but sold very few of the extras printed for the Swindon game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And for the first time at a game this calendar year (and only second time this season), Reggie was out and about pre-game. Rick still hasn\u2019t got his DBS (applied for last summer before the season started), so costume maker Matt (who has security clearance and vetting up the yazoo) was in it. It is hoped we\u2019ll have Reggie at the remaining Saturday home fixtures this season. Although it doesn\u2019t help when there are moronic female fans shouting at Reggie \u2018get away from me you paedophile\u2019, why should anyone have to take that slanderous abuse. It would serve her right if she were sued for slander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The weather can\u2019t make its mind up. Bright sunshine? Strong winds? A bit of hail? More sun? Bitter cold? Why not have all of them in a two-hour period?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new manager has certainly rung the changes. Completely out of the squad for today since the Fleetwood game are Geraldo Bajrami (went off injured), Jonny Russell (international duty), and Kellen Gordon (a bit of a shocker that one); additionally Klaidi Lolos and Taylor Richards drop to the bench, which still doesn\u2019t have a keeper on it, but it does have Max Anderson. Louie Copley also returns from injury and goes straight into the starting lineup, along with Tobi Ademeyo, and Lewis Richards, Ade Adeyemo, and Ronan Darcy get promoted from the bench and start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are in our usual all red with white trim home kit, and Gillingham are in all blue. And Gillingham do that dick move of swapping ends before the kick-off. Which means Grant has to change ends for the photos as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is an early Gillingham shout for a handball in the box from a cross. We appear to be playing a back four with Ade Adeyemo slotting in at right back. Scott Malone plays a ball out from defence into Lewis Richards in the box and his cross is deflected back off him and goes for a goal kick. Gillingham have a long throw merchant in their ranks, and he slings in a couple of early bombs into the box, we clear the first and get a free kick on the second one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Malone clearance goes over the east marquee for ball loss one of the day. We break and Dion Pereira crosses it and Tobi Adeyemo gets to it out on the left, and plays it to Ronan Darcy, he lays it back to Richards, whose cross hits T Adeyemo\u2019s back and goes to the keeper. We win a corner down the right, and it\u2019s taken deep out to the left, T Adeyemo gets to it and is fouled near the other corner flag. The free kick is taken short and lost. A Adeyemo misses his header in midfield and Gillingham break into the box, but he gets back to make the tackle, and Jacob Chapman collects. There is a Gillingham player down on the edge of the box needing treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we restart Gillingham attack down the right and work the ball into the box and get a shot which Chapman saves, but the ref blows for a foul in the build up and we get a free kick. It is played long up the right to T Adeyemo, he exchanges passes with A Adeyemo and gets into the box before laying it back to Jay Williams and his shot from just outside the box goes just wide. Gillingham go up the other end and have a shot themselves which drifts wide left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They get into the box again and a last ditch A Adeyemo tackle puts it out for a corner. It\u2019s taken short and back to the taker and then swung in deep and straight out for a goal kick. Williams wins a free kick in the middle of the Gillingham half, but Chapman is down requiring treatment in the middle of our half. With all the players rushing to the bench for instructions it does ask the question of how genuine it is. The free kick is taken out wide to T Adeyemo who plays it back to Ronan Darcy, only for his return to be too strong and the keeper collects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A ball out of defence gets to Danilo Orsi on halfway and he is the only Crawley player in that half and after taking it forward about twenty yards he is just outnumbered off the ball. A long ball forward from Gillingham sees A Adeyemo forced to concede a corner. It is taken low and goes straight through the box and is put out for another corner on the other side. That is taken to the near post and the header on it goes wide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every time the ball goes long to T Adeyemo the defender is trying to take his shirt off him, to the extent there have been plenty of nipples on display (instead of just the usual tits out there). Then he is scythed down near halfway, and does get a free kick, and there is a booking for the Gillingham player. It goes into the box and A Adeyemo beats a man and gives it to Louie Copley, and he is tackled for a corner. It goes to the near post, and the keeper makes a hash of it but is lucky as it bounces straight back to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are four added minutes. T Adeyemo is fouled again, he gets the free kick, but bizarrely also gets a long lecture from the ref. Gillingham win a corner, it is taken short and then put in deep and there is a scramble in the box and Gillingham are claiming a handball for a penalty again, those claims are waved away and the half time whistle goes with the score at 0-0. We might have had a bit of luck there for once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Into the second half and the first serious action is Orsi getting gone through the back of, and he is injured and needs substituting, with Harry McKirdy coming on to replace him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Gillingham throw down the line is then crossed, it comes all the way over to the other side and there is a shot \/ pump back in and Malone chests it down and clears off the line for a corner, which is taken deep and goes straight out for a goal kick. T Adeyemo is pulled back on the break, and the ref gives a free kick. It should be a booking and probably would have been if it had been any other player apart from the one Gillingham player he had booked in the first half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a ball out to A Adeyemo, and he plays in onto Pereira down the wing, he gets it into McKirdy in the box and his shot is saved, T Adeyemo gets to the rebound but slices his shot and it goes over the bar. At the other end Gillingham get into the box, have a shot which is put out for a corner, and that is swung in straight to Chapman. He boots it out to Pereira down the right, and he plays it back to Williams, there\u2019s a cross into the box and McKirdy gets to it and gets a shot off which is saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The clearance is long and bounces twice before finding a Gillingham player in our box, and they have a shot which goes out over the Eden Utilities Stand for ball loss two of the day. We play it out to Williams, and he plays a ball forward, but it is headed back out, he slides in to win the ball, but when it goes forward, we have two players offside. A long ball forward by Gillingham is shepherded back to Chapman but Malone is down from the challenge. He takes a while to get back to his feet but looks all right. And then the next time Gillingham get into our box Malone is in the wars again, this time taking a high boot to the chest which sees a booking for the Gillingham striker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We work the ball out down the left, across to Williams in the middle, and over again to A Adeyemo on the right, and he lines up a shot from outside the box, which flies over the bar and over the KRL Logistics stand for ball loss three of the day. Gillingham get the ball forward again, and as we clear it from out box A Adeyemo is absolutely clattered and there is a third booking for Gillingham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is time for a raft of substitutions, with Copley, Pereira, and Darcy making way for the returning Max Anderson, Taylor Richards, and Harry Forster. Williams gets a booking in midfield. Not sure how much contact there was, but the dive to the ground by the Gillingham number 30 would have scored highly for artistic merit in the Olympics. The free kick goes into the box and is headed out for a throw. It\u2019s taken long, headed back to the taker and a cross goes to the back post where the header goes straight to Chapman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We make out final substitution with L Richards making way for Akin Odimayo, which means A Adeyemo swaps over to left back now. There is then five minutes of not very much at all. A bit of filler. Then Gillingham get down the right and put in a deep cross which Odimayo heads out for a corner. It is punched clear by Chapman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are six added minutes, and people have been streaming out for the last five minutes. Forster goes down the left and puts a cross in but it is cleared, Odimayo wins it back and plays it to T Adeyemo in the box, he plays it back to Odimayo and then it is on to Richards on the edge of the box, he cuts across two steps to the left and lets fly, and it squeezes into the bottom corner and we lead 1-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which just makes me want to say to all those muppets who were leaving early \u2013 HA HA! Seriously, we\u2019ve scored late late goals in our last three home matches, where the fuck are you going five minutes before the end of the game?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We play it out from the back down the left again, Forster beats a man and then plays it inside to T Adeyemo in the box, he takes a touch and then slams a shot into the back of the net, and we lead 2-0. Absolute scenes. What a feeling of relief and happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The extra couple of minutes on top of the six indicated were expected and we play them out safely and come away with a 2-0 win. What a great result for Colin Kazim-Richards in his first match as manager. Let\u2019s hope it\u2019s the first of many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sponsors man of the match was announced as being Charlie Barker. The crowd was announced as being 4,388, the number of away fans was garbled \/ drowned out but was a decent number over 900.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have seen the pre-kick-off huddle in the middle of the pitch from our players all season, but today saw a post-game one, a new message of togetherness under the new manager perhaps?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before they started their applause of the fans \u2013 well, those who were still there and hadn\u2019t missed the two goals and the victory. It may not have been pretty at times, but there was commitment there and at this point results are much more important than performances, and goals scored are much more important than the number of xylophones gathered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harrogate Town lost in their early kick-off, but both Barrow (who came from behind against top of the table Bromley) and Newport County also won, so it is still tight, and we are now only two points behind Tranmere Rovers as well, although they, like Barrow, have a game in hand on us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quiz time \u2013 Taken from that Shoot 1984 quiz book mentioned a few thousand words ago. \u201cLast year Charlton Athletic paid a club record fee of \u00a3300,000 to Barcelona for whom?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next up is a Good Friday clash against fellow relegation strugglers, in our international game, over the border in Wales against Newport County. Blah blah blah must win game, blah blah blah. Or more accurately, it is a must not lose game. The offer of subsidised coach travel has been well received, and as it stands there are three full coaches heading there, with a fourth standby list over half full.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Come on you reds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, perhaps the way we\u2019ve been playing recently, it hasn\u2019t really been much of a thrill for the watching fans attending games. But Scott Lindsey is now gone, and on a positive note, there was the tremendous experience of the Wembley win in the playoffs less than two years ago. A lot of people have … Continue reading “The Thrill Is Gone”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[391,14],"tags":[40,520,423],"class_list":["post-2082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crawley","category-sport","tag-crawley-town","tag-gillingham","tag-match-report"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onetruekev.co.uk\/Mutterings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onetruekev.co.uk\/Mutterings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onetruekev.co.uk\/Mutterings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onetruekev.co.uk\/Mutterings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onetruekev.co.uk\/Mutterings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onetruekev.co.uk\/Mutterings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2084,"href":"https:\/\/onetruekev.co.uk\/Mutterings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2082\/revisions\/2084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onetruekev.co.uk\/Mutterings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onetruekev.co.uk\/Mutterings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onetruekev.co.uk\/Mutterings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}