AWAY THE GAS – CRAWLEY TOWN
BY DARREN STOBBS
Off the back of two disappointing home results we were all looking to get a positive result at lowly Crawley Town; in the build up to the match I labelled this as a pressure game but one the players have the quality capable of grinding out any type of win that was needed.
We left The Mem at 8:30am and, having to take the planned diversion to join the M4 at the Bath junction, it went well and we were on the motorway by 9:20am.
We took a break at Cobham services on the M25 for 45 minutes, which was very busy. We see many different supporters at services around the country and some were taking the opportunity to speak to Salisbury fans, what with the Darrell Clarke connection.
We arrived at Crawley Town for 12:35pm. The very friendly car park stewards were on hand to direct the coach.
Having been to Crawley a number of times before, we headed to the club bar at the ground, and they always welcome to us at their place.
They have a number of drink options on offer and live football on the TV. A local DJ was belting out tunes from the 70’s onwards, with his speakers near the open doorway, desperately trying to keep them dry from the autumn showers!
It’s another case that with ‘low profile’ matches, supporters mixing before a match in the home bar works.
The team news was soon with us and the excitement of knowing that Tom Lockyer was to start his first match in two years, after the terrible news that he had suffered a second cardiac arrest for Luton at
Bournemouth’s ground.
I lost my uncle in the same way playing a rugby match for Gordano. So, to see Tom come through this and still come back to play, was a privilege, through his sheer determination and help from all the experts on hand for him.
I didn’t expect a large following for this game, given the recent bad form and an away game of a fair distance. However, there were a commendable 713 Gasheads in attendance.
The food hut inside the ground was selling the usual matchday fare. I once had a Bovril at Crawley, and to this day I still don’t know what it was – but it wasn’t the Bovril that I know! So I stuck with just a steak & ale pie at a reasonable price of £4.50p made by Piglets – certainly one of the top end pie companies, although they could have turned the ovens up a bit for a hot pie!
I took my seat and soon realised that Tom Lockyer’s family were all sat in front of myself, no doubt so proud of this moment – but understandably nervous as well.
The game was underway and despite an even open to the context, things were soon to change.
We were down to 10 men after 30 minutes after a deliberate handball in the penalty area by Jack Sparkes. Ryan Loft’s resulting penalty hit the post to Southwood’s right, with the humorous chants of ‘Lofty is a Gashead!’ from the Rovers fans.
We then hit the underside of the bar from Shaq Forde. Soon after Promise Omechere was forced off with a calf injury, on his return.
We soon fell a goal behind when a deflected shot inside the box off Alfie Kilgour went into the far corner.
It was hard to find anything to be amused about in the first half, but a sprinkler let off in the far corner causing a delay was about the only thing!
Second half there was no positive reaction from ourselves.
Crawley were 2-0 up when a deep cross from the left was put in with a decent half volley from 12 yards. It got worse, 3-0, after a corner and five attempts heading in the air, before they put in from close range. Crawley then wrapped up things with a fourth goal when we lost the ball on the edge of our box and a decent curling shot into the top corner.
There is one thing that doesn’t fail and that’s the sense of humour of Gasheads. The ball ending up in the away end and with all fed up with proceedings, the ball was to be kept hidden for a duration. Calls of ‘Steward, steward where’s the ball?!!’ rang out, I think they enjoyed the game of guessing where!
Although we were down to 10 men, that was no excuse for a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of 23rd in the league. Teams with 10 men still find ways of grinding out a result, but this wasn’t the case today.
We collect a ‘Man of the Match’ vote on the coach after every away game.
Martin turned to me and said; ‘I don’t know whether to do this today!!’ It does become a bit of an embarrassment, but I said; ‘You got to, we managed to do it all through last season!!’
In all truthfulness, it was hard to pick anyone.
I gave it to Tom Lockyer, for simply managing to get back on a football pitch for nearly 60 minutes. The 713 Gasheads were all ‘people of the match’ for their efforts!
Fabrizio Cavegn won the vote.
ATT: 3,416
We left Crawley at 5:15pm, getting back to Kingswood firstly at 8:25pm having stopped for 20 minutes at Chieveley Services. It was noted on the way home that Rovers have never conceded four goals in three consecutive league matches.
Leading up to this match, I mentioned that if we get another heavy defeat today then we really have got a problem and Darrell certainly has one now. However, lets cast our minds back to the opening games in ‘that’ season in The Conference.
Darrell was under big pressure through similar performances, albeit not by the same goal margins. Only winning two of our opening seven games in non league. He is great at man management and I believe he can turn it around. In saying that, I think certain players need to take a hard look at themselves after the past three games and question if they up for the challenge at Rovers.
If there is anybody not on board, I am sure Darrell will identify this. The first thing Rovers fans want to see is 100% effort and commitment from ALL 11 on the pitch, if we lose games with this and playing well then Gasheads will be in acceptance and patient. However, it’s recently been a throwback to last season’s problems of not seeing this from everyone involved. Success comes from a team effort.
We now have Bromley away coming up next week in the FA Cup. A bit of a ‘free hit’ with no points at stake and going out there to put a wrong right. Then comes a difficult home match against Gillingham, although their own form has dipped of late.
