League 2 :Cheltenham Town - Crawley Town

 

Crawley were another team who featured heavily last week and ahead of their long trip up to Hartlepool, I spoke about the many changes at the club .......

 

Crawley Town also made the short list and are such a big price, I also have to take a little something on them. They are up to fifth and just two points off second place and confidence at the club is sky high right now . Much of this is down to new head coach Dermot Drummy (pictured) who has transformed the mindset at Crawley in just four months, well know in the game, he spent many years working with the Arsenal and Chelsea Academy and U21 teams and was in charge of the Blues teams who won the FA Youth Cup and U21 Premier League and this was an eyecatching appointment for Crawley. He is said to have had a massive influence and he has brought with him six current (loan) and former Chelsea players, who were all desperate to work with him again. Lots of small things have been changed , for example, they set off early yesterday for Hartlepool and stopped and trained en route at the very impressive Leeds United Academy facilities and they just do everything the right way now. Town are unbeaten in five , with four wins, including the last two away starts, where they scored five goals. They were bought by Turkish steel magnate Ziya Eren in March, he owns a club in his homeland and looks to be in this for the long term (with a ten year plan to reach the Championship) and Crawley to be heading in the right direction

Pool are 0-4-3 in their last seven league at home, also lost 1-0 here to the Sunderland Academy on Tuesday and boss Craig Hignett was awarded a three match touchline ban yesterday and now for the bad news ! The hosts are without eight players today and are hard hit defensively and in central midfield, key absences are goalkeeper Trevor Carson who is on international duty, back up Adam Bartlett has conceded 15 goals in his last four starts, including six this year at 20th placed Stevenage and central midfielder Nicky Featherstone (lost 4 of last 5 he has sat out), his absence is compounded with Michael Woods also missing in the middle of the park. Crawley with the handicap start !
 

They fell behind , but battled back to earn a share of the points and on another day would have run away with that after hitting the woodwork four times ! Now they travel to Cheltenham who worked so hard for that point up at Accrington seven days ago. Both teams are looking to keep unbeaten runs going, so a draw is quite possible, but I feel that of the two, the visitors are the far more likely winner and the hosts are hard hit by injury and suspension today.The bans for former Brentford central defender Daniel O'Shaughnessy and central midfielder Harry Pell look huge , both are ever present and DOS is vital to a three man backline and Town lost 2/7 without Pell in their Conference promotion season, just 3 in 39 when he played. Hosts have scored just three home league goals since August and the missing pair contributed one each, four in total this season.
 

 

1.5 units Crawley Town +0.25 ball 2.22 asian line/Sportmarket.