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THE CAZBAR BIG GAME PREVIEW – CRAWLEY TOWN
Before we take a look at our visit to Crawley Town on Tuesday night, I think it’s only right we take a brief look back at our home victory versus Tranmere Rovers.
Honestly…..you have to be fair, we got away with one, but you don’t always get what you deserve in football, and I’m sure Tranmere and its fans will be feeling pretty aggrieved they never got anything out of Saturday’s game, they deserved a minimum of a point as they dominated us in just about every department in the second half, and the only thing that let them down was the poor finishing and the width of a crossbar.
In the 1st half we pretty much bossed it but in the 2nd half the Tranmere gaffer shuffled the pack making 3 substitutions, a couple of tweaks to the formation, and the whole feel of the game changed. We went from confident and controlling to a team hanging on 15 minutes into the second half as Tranmere pegged us back and we became more and more desperate to keep them out, somehow we did, and that final whistle was a very welcome sound.
Two games in and I’ve mentioned several times we are a very fragile squad, and we have very little depth or option when it comes to either mixing it up or combating a team that is able to change formations or modes of tactics, at times we look okay but we have a soft underbelly that Tranmere were trying to expose, other teams will watch the videos of that game and may have more success.
I haven’t really criticised GA so far but I am concerned he didn’t fancy bringing on Devoy, he was probably one of the more experienced on the bench, and we were getting overrun in midfield, he seemed the obvious choice at the expense of Leko or Mo, but the young Irishman was not called upon, so I certainly hope he is not going the same way as Kemp, who incidentally would have been another ideal candidate had we not shunted him out.
So, there you have it, we need more players to be able to meet the challenges this division is going to throw at us, and you can already see one manifesting itself, Leko and Mo are going to get kicked to bits, it’s only a matter of time before one or both are injured, then what.
Yes I’m happy we are top, yes I’m happy we are still 100%, but you cannot walk away from that game without being concerned, a victory it was …. but I feel more concerned now than I did 2 weeks ago.
Right…. Crawley Town away on Tuesday night. It’s early days of course but Crawley sit in 6th position with a record ofP 2, W 1, D 1, L 0, GF 2, GA 1, and 4 points, the record of those games is below.
Crawley Town 1 Bradford City 0
Salford City 1 Crawley Town 1
On Saturday Crawley benefitted from a Luke Garbutt own goal that deflected off him into the net but were unlucky not to grab all the points striking the woodwork 4 times. The week before they again benefited with former Don Daniel Oyegoke being sent off for Bradford with over half the game remaining. They have had had 35 shots so far this league campaign, but just 5 were on target.
Crawley were a bit of a basket case off the park last season with a frosty relationship between the owner and the fans and that probably contributed to them being installed as favourites to finish stone last as it was looking to implode, but it seems things are improving, many of the differences have been settled and those odds on relegation might need revising.
In charge for the Red Devils is Walsall born 51 year old Scott Lindsey and as a player he was a bit of a journeyman midfielder playing for 18 teams, with the only EFL experience for Gillingham back in 94/95.
His coaching/ managerial experience started at Folkestone Invicta and progressed to Gillingham where he was a Development Coach. From there it was off to Lincoln City as First Team Coach under Chris Sutton and when Sutton was shown the door Lindsey was installed as the Caretaker, but eventual relegation saw his contract cancelled by mutual consent.
Next for Lindsey was the U18’s managers job at Swindon Town and then two years later the role of Assistant Manager at Forest Green. Not one to let the grass grown under his feet he joined Chatham Town as manager for two seasons and then rejoined Swindon this time as an assistant manager, and a year later installed as the new No 1. He stuck that for about 6 months and decided to leave to head things up at Crawley Town despite Swindon being in 8th and chasing the playoffs.
He's now been at Crawley since January 2023 on a two and a half year contract, and you get the feeling sooner or later he will be off again as he doesn’t like to overstay his welcome.
His stats as a manager don’t make for the prettiest reading with an EFL record of P 55, W 17, D 15, L 23 with a 31% Win Ratio, and that goes down 3 more points in his time at Crawley.
Historically we have the edge over Crawley with a record of P 8, W 4, D 2, L 2, the full record is shown below.
2012/13 – Crawley 2 MK Dons 0
2012/13 – MK Dons 0 Crawley 0
2013/14 – Crawley 0 MK Dons 2 (Gleeson, Bamford)
2013/14 – MK Dons 0 Crawley 2
2014/15 – MK Dons 2 Crawley 0 (Alli, Afobe)
2014/15 – Crawley 2 MK Dons 2 (Grigg, Alli)
2018/19 – Crawley 0 MK Dons 4 (Healey 2, Agard, Aneke)
2018/19 – MK Dons 1 Crawley 0 (Agard)
The surprising thing from those results is on only one occasion out of the 8 games have both teams managed to score.
For the record Crawley finished in a very nervy 22nd last season just 2 points clear of life in the National League and losing almost 50% of their games, but if we are to believe what we are told Crawley just might have turned the corner and might not be the cannon fodder pundits were predicting in the summer.
As for a dangerman I don’t really know to be honest and about the best I can offer you is Dominic Telford who scored 12 goals last term. Other than that Aaron Lewis brought in from Charlton likes to shoot from distance and could be someone to keep a close eye on if playing and former Cobbler’s graduate Jay Williams who was signed on from Brackley Town in the summer to be the enforcer in midfield, I’m sure him and Gilbs will soon get acquainted.
Betting – Oddschecker have us down as favourites and if I was betting, which I’m not, I think my only wager would be either team to win to nil judging on that little stat I pulled up.
Crawley 9/4, Draw 5/2, MK Dons 5/4
Prediction – Very difficult to predict this one as I have a niggling feeling that Crawley are going to be hard to beat at home, and in this I can see both teams cancelling each other out and it ending up as 0-0. Of course, it depends which MK turn up, the first half or the second half of the Tranmere game.
Round Up – Just two games in and just the three undefeated teams, us, Barrow, and Gillingham who are also yet to concede a goal. For the record 9 teams are so far unbeaten and 9 teams are yet to win, with 4 teams on zero points.
It’s going to take about a month or two to get any sense out of the league table but in the early showings I wouldn’t be shocked to see Mansfield challenging to go up.
That’s about it, see you next time.
WD
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Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight
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