Crawley Town Football Club History

As we've had our last home game I've updated the stats database for attendance stats, though we look on course to have our highest ever League away following on Saturday, a record which will hopefully be broken again 8 days later. I shall update all the season and player stats with the whole seasons data after our final match, so fingers crossed that won’t be until at least the 20 May!

Some observations about our season from the attendance records, some of which will not appear on the site until the seasons end;

Our home league average of 3,633 is our highest ever, beating our previous best of 3,530 which was achieved in 2013/14. This record is also reflected in our Crawley fan only support (3,109) beating the 2,925 achieved in 2013/14.

No attendances from before we joined the Football League now appear on the all-time top 20 list, with Dagenham and Weymouth having dropped off following our last two home games. 9 of our top 20 have been achieved during the Wagmi era.

We have twice broken our home support record this season, with 4,889 Reds fans watching us beat MK Dons on Tuesday night and 4,711 watching us lose to Doncaster at the end of March. 4 of the top 5 in this category have been set in the last 5 matches and 9 of the top 10 have been set during the Wagmi era (three of which were £2 ticket matches).

The 1,152 of us who travelled to Sutton a couple of weeks ago made up the highest away following we’ve ever taken to a league match.

Crawley Town Football Club History Attendance records

Having recently received match data going all the way back to 1938, I have updated the history of club record attendances as a first step towards processing it all, based on all attendance data available across the last 86 years.

Please note that this is not a list of our highest ever attendances (that's a little way below this section), but our record attendances as they were set and then beaten.

Crawley Town Football Club History Attendance records

38 photographs taken before and during the League Two clash between Morecambe and Crawley Town on 5 March 2024. After being out of the house for almost 16 hours, with over 10 of them spent driving the 590 mile round trip, it was disappointing to return home with no points, despite a good match and a decent performance from the visitors for their 65 fans amongst the crowd of 2,997. 73/92

Morecambe 1 (0) - (0) 0 Crawley Town - Football League Two 5 March 2024 - 38 photographs

A further 18 previously unseen photos, taken after Crawley Town had left Town Mead, have been added to the foot of the Town Mead page of the CTFCHistory site.

https://www.ctfchistory.co.uk/photosets/townmead.html

New photos courtesy of Simon King

The written and pictorial history of Town Mead: 1949-1997 118 pictures charting the history of Crawley Towns former home

The website has been updated with a new Attendance Records page, which includes the following tables

History of record attendances

Top twenty home attendances of all time: All Competitions | League Matches | Cup Matches | Friendlies

Top twenty away attendances since July 1980: All Competitions | League Matches | Cup Matches

Top twenty home attendances (Crawley Town fans only) since July 2012: All Competitions | League Matches | Cup Matches

Top twenty away attendances (Crawley Town fans only) since July 2012: All Competitions | League Matches | Cup Matches

Lowest twenty home attendances since July 1980: All Competitions | League Matches | Cup Matches | Friendlies

Lowest twenty away attendances since July 1980: All Competitions | League Matches | Cup Matches

Lowest twenty home attendances (Crawley Town fans only) since July 2012: All Competitions | League Matches | Cup Matches

Lowest twenty away attendances (Crawley Town fans only) since July 2012: All Competitions | League Matches | Cup Matches

Top twenty away followings at the Broadfield Stadium since July 2012: All Competitions | League Matches | Cup Matches

Lowest twenty away followings at the Broadfield Stadium since July 2012: All Competitions | League Matches | Cup Matches

Crawley Town Football Club History Attendance records

27 new photos have been added to the written and pictorial history of Town Mead, including some interesting photos from the 1950s and 1960s and 25 of the photos relating to the building work of the mid 1990s have been upgraded to higher resolution scans.

As always, if anyone has any Town mead photos that do not appear on this page then they will be gratefully received.

The written and pictorial history of Town Mead: 1949-1997 118 pictures charting the history of Crawley Towns former home

Unless anyone was hiding, we had 6 paying fans there!

Heybridge Swifts 1 (1) - (3) 7 Crawley Town
Pre Season Friendly
25 July 2023
Attendance: 173

95 ground and match photos from the Pre Season Friendly between Heybridge Swifts and Crawley Town on 25 July 2023

Heybridge Swifts v Crawley Town | 25 July 2023 Pre Season Friendly | 95 ground and match photos

2022/23 stats have been uploaded to the website.

Our all competition (2,978) and league (3,042) average home attendances were our highest since 2013/14, as was the number of Crawley fans watching matches at the Broadfield Stadium. Our average away following (231) was the highest since 2012/13.

The 4,351 home supporters who witnessed our victory over Rochdale in March was the highest number of Crawley Town supporters to EVER see a home match (and only topped away twice, at Brighton in 1992 and Manchester United in 2011). The 840 supporters who followed us to Gillingham in February is the highest EVER recorded away following for a league match.

Dom Telfords 15 goals makes him our 69th highest goalscorer since 1980/81 and Jack Powells 51 appearances takes him to 151 in total, placing him at number 33 in the appearances list, again since 1980/81

For many more stats for the season, please visit the CTFC History website.

2022/2023: Full season stats. CTFC History A full breakdown of the seasons stats.

This may have gone unnoticed, but today saw a record attendance as far as the number of Crawley supporters inside the Broadfield stadium is concerned.

4,351 surpassed the 4,044 Crawley fans that saw us beaten by Coventry, and so relegated to League Two, on 3 May 2015.

We have been recording home/away splits since 2012/13 and the only match that could mean today's crowd is NOT a record was when a total of 4,723 saw us draw with Crewe on 6 April 2012; the day the East Stand was opened, but I think it unlikely that Crewe had less than 372 fans at that match.

This is an aerial shot from the late 40s just before our move to Town Mead, showing our former 'ground' at Yetmans Field.

The pitch is in the top left corner of the photo - spot the worn penalty areas. It looks as though the players entered the field by way of a gate at the north east corner of the pitch and there appears to be a changing hut at the eastern end of that field.

For getting your bearings, the old Embassy Cinema (now the site of Turtle Bay) is bottom right.

The second picture shows the location of the field on a modern aerial image. Morrisons is to the right and the leisure park car park (i.e. Town Mead) and firestation is top right

Club honours and best performances in major competitions

Crawley Town Football Club History: Club Honours Club Honours

The CTFC History website, particularly the stats section, has had a big revamp! It's not designed to be pretty; it's designed to display information.

The site now holds match data for all competitive games (and most friendlies) from 1980/81. This includes for team line ups, scorers, substitutions and most attendance figures. Where media (e.g. photos, videos, press clippings etc.) is held for a specific match, then the date and opponents have a hyperlink to take you directly to the archives.

From this data comprehensive tables of appearances and goalscorers, team performance in various competitions, highest/lowest/average attendance figures (broken down by venue, competition and, from 2012/13, home and away fan splits) have been created. All final League tables from our entire history are also included.

The 'All Seasons Summary' page has been massively expanded to show a lot of extra data that can be compared side by side, season by season in a format that is much easier to read and you'll also find more videos and a club honours page.

I am still trying to source and compile data from earlier seasons and there are hundreds of videos, photos and press clippings waiting to be added. Work is also ongoing to provide 'dynamic stats', whereby you can filter the full stats database to display match information of your choice. Please bookmark the page and visit regularly for updates.

Massive thanks to those who have helped out with missing data over the last 10 months or so, particularly Mick Fox and John Barnett, whilst I have been writing the software to process it all and create the pages. Please browse at you leisure.

Crawley Town Football Club History The complete history in stats, pictures & videos

Doncaster Rovers 4 (1) - (1) 1 Crawley Town
English Football League 2
24 September 2022
Attendance: 5,711 (166 away fans)

59 ground and match photos and a video of Doncaster's (harshly awarded) penalty ex*****on and celebrations

Doncaster Rovers v Crawley Town | EFL 2 24 Sept 2022 | 59 photos and a video of the penalty

A little montage to be used on the preview card of the Media pages on the soon to be revealed updated website.

Who can pick the 8 matches featured?

Crewe Alexandra 1 (0) - (0) 0 Crawley Town
Football League Two
17 September 2022
Attendance 3,717 (133 away)

63 ground, fan and match photos

Crewe Alexandra v Crawley Town | 17 Sep 2022 EFL2 | 62 ground, fan and match photos

I still have a small number of CTFC programmes available, mainly 1980s, but a handful from the 70's and early 90's.

If you collect CTFC programmes and have some gaps, please have a browse

http://ctfchistory.co.uk/progs.htm

Crawley Town Football Club History: Programmes for sale Crawley Town Football Club History - Programmes for sale

We don't normally comment on the current here, but today we'll make an exception.

Things you like to see...

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the final competitive match to be played at Town Mead; a 2-0 victory over Atherstone United in the Premier Division of the Southern League. The final goal was scored by Craig Whittington from the penalty spot in front of a disappointing, though above average, crowd of 901.

Town Mead, now under the car park of a leisure park, was the home of Crawley Town Football Club from 1949 until 1997 and the record attendance was set on 4 December 1993 when 4,104 watched the 2-1 defeat to Barnet in the second round of the FA Cup.

The ground saw tier five football in the 1969/70 season when the Reds held brief membership of the Southern League Premier Division. In the days before the Alliance Premier League was formed this was the highest level of non-league football in the south of the country.

Some newly found pictures have been added to the history of Town Mead page to mark the occasion.

http://www.ctfchistory.co.uk/photosets/townmead.html

The written and pictorial history of Town Mead: 1949-1997 91 pictures charting the history of Crawley Towns former home

Eleven years ago today, we won promotion to the Football League for the first time in our history with a 3-0 victory at Tamworth.

Yesterday, 6 April 2022, marked the 10th anniversary of the opening of the East Stand at the Broadfield Stadium.

Containing 2,154 seats the East Stand was first used on Good Friday, 6 April, 2012 when a then record attendance of 4,723 saw the Reds draw 1-1 with Crewe Alexandra.

The stand was constructed in order to meet ground grading regulations following the clubs promotion to the Football league 12 months earlier and replaced the East Terrace, a shallow uncovered terrace which ran the full length of the pitch and held approximately 800 spectators.

Harrogate Town 1 (0) - (0) 3 Crawley Town
Football League Two
8 February 2022
Att: 1,785 (73 away fans)

27 ground and fan photos

Ground 197 (68/92)

http://www.ctfchistory.co.uk/photosets/20220208.html

Harrogate Town 1 (0) - (0) 3 Crawley Town | EFL2 27 ground and fan photos | 8 Feb 2022

Have you got your copy yet?

Someone we all know, Steve Leake, has just released his Crawley focused book 'Noli Cedere: An account of one family's journey through life'

"68 years ago, in 1952, a family came to live in Crawley New Town for a fresh start after the ravages of war. What has happened since then is a story of how one member of that family grew to have a family of his own and a love for his local football club and sport in general. This is not just about football but how some matches and other events, personal, national and international punctuate our lives."

All proceeds are to be split between SANDS and the Crawley Town Community Foundation.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08XZ65DMM/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ianslinks01&creative=6738&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B08XZ65DMM&linkId=f13ba9e67ab4bf75ac0e99638cb8e91e

Noli Cedere: An account of one family's journey through life Noli Cedere: An account of one family's journey through life