Crawley Town/ Steve Evans

[The Red Baron]

A nice article on Crawley Town and their \"charming\" manager- an old adversary of ours. I think even some of the \"ABUs\" will be hoping that Man United give them a thorough thrashing at Old Trafford later this month.

FA CUP MATCH OF THE WEEK: TORQUAY UNITED 0 CRAWLEY TOWN 1
From www.twohundredpercent

When a non-League club gets as far as the Fourth Round of the FA Cup, the
goodwill shown by supporters of other clubs often transcends league and
occasionally even local rivalries. Not so this year. Crawley Town have an
excellent chance of making the Fifth Round of the competition, but there is at
best a feeling of ambivalence surrounding this FA Cup run. This, after all, is
the club that spent more money on players during last summer than the whole of
the Division above it and is managed by a man that many feel should have been
banned from the game for life.

As ever, there has been talk of giant-killing throughout the week but, in the
case of this match, it doesn't feel as if an away win would be much of a
surprise. Torquay United fell out of the Football League in 2007 and spent a
couple of years there themselves before managing to scramble their way back two
seasons ago via the play-offs. They're halfway down the League Two table at the
time of writing, meaning that there are only a dozen or so League places between
the two teams. There will be no \"shock\" result at Plainmoor this afternoon. Not
that this is the narrative that Crawley want - they had the \"Living The Dream\"
posters out this week, to which the natural reaction might have been, \"Buying
The Dream, more like\".

It's a cold and blustery day on the English Riviera and play is held up for
fifteen minutes on account of crowd congestion (or, as is pointed out to me, \"it
took longer than expected to get Steve Evan's SHEER BRASS NECK through the
gate\"). The blustery conditions do not induce great football from either team,
although Torquay, to their credit, do at least to put the ball on the ground
whereas all the money thrown at Crawley Town seems to have bought the club is
team that is a marginally more sophisticated version of John Beck's Cambridge
United team of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Torquay have the best of the
opening chances and Danny Stevens has a shot that flashes just wide of Michel
Kuipers' goal after a quarter of an hour, but it's a poor match, full of
unnecessary mistakes and occasional outbursts. Five minutes from half-time,
though, Crawley take the lead with a goal copied word for word from one of
Charles Reep's manuals. Sergio Torres lumps the ball three-quarters the length
pitch for Matthew Tubbs to drive the ball past the goalkeeper and in.

Things improve in the second half, as Crawley seem to settle and actually start
playing some attractive football. Right on the hour, they are given a golden
chance to wrap the game up when Chris Zebroski handles inside the penalty area
for his troubles. Tubbs steps up with the penalty, but Scott Bevan reacts
quickly and dives low to his right and save. Seven minutes later, they have a
second chance from the spot after Lee Mansell and Jamie Cook get tied up in each
others limbs. There's a brief and rather unseemly row between two Crawley
players over who will step up to be the plucky, underdog hero in the papers
tomorrow. Craig McAllister finally wins the right, steps up and. misses.

As the second half wears on, though, a niggliness comes into Crawley's behaviour
that makes them even less likeable than they might otherwise have been. Defender
Pablo Mills is booked and turns his back on the referee in the way that a
sulking teenager might as his name is taken. A shove in the ribs on a Crawley
player in his own penalty area (which ends in said player on the floor
clutching, you guessed it, his face) leads to a bout of pushing and shoving, and
a second yellow card for Crawley's Dean Howell, who has been playing like the
b@$t@rd son of Steve Bruce and a combine harvester. For the first time this
afternoon, a previously toothless looking Torquay attack starts to look like
doing something. A speculative shot from an angle bounces over off the top of
the crossbar, and Torquay now play with a bit of urgency, but Crawley hang on
reasonably comfortably to edge through the Fifth Round of the competition.

There will, however, be little cheering outside the Crawley area and few
well-wishers sending them all the best as they prepare to see if they can become
the first non-League side in modern times to get as far as the Quarter-Finals of
the FA Cup. This is the cost of their largesse and the cost of the continuing
involvement at their club - in a managerial position - of somebody that should
have been banned for life from football for his systematic cheating at a
previous club. The crocodile tears that he wept in court to keep himself out of
prison have been replaced over the years with a lack of humility or grace that
is an insult to those that he left behind at Boston United to pick up the
shattered pieces of that club. That his team should have put in such a bullish
performance this afternoon seems to indicate that he is building a team in his
own image, and that is quite dispiriting, if you stop and think about it for a
moment.

[normal rules]

Could not agree more with the above sentiments Rigo. As an exile living in Boston i can say with confidence that this man will never be welcome in this part of Lincolnshire again - ever. I could have been sick hearing him go on about how many times do you have to say sorry etc in the pre-match the other night. He brought BUFC to its knees and it is pleasing to see them get back to where they belong.
He should have never been allowed back into football. It was with no surprise he ended up at Crawley - at the time run by the Majeed family - who are well known to be crooks in those parts.

He is undoubtably in the same league as Richardson.
There is a place reserved in hell for him.

And if he ever ends up at York Street with whatever team then god help him.
I am still a regular at Rovers and get to see Boston every once in a while.
That would certainly be a game worth going to - if only to get to give him hell at.

[DonnyNoel]

Theres also this article from a while back regarding the original investigation.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/league-two/3040461/Seedy-truth-that-lies-behind-the-shaming-of-a-football-club.html

[Guernsey Exile]

Cheers Noel - a good read - it begs the question, is there a fit and proper test in place for managers?

[Keenstonian]

\"ridiculous amounts of money to spend on players\" .... let's see now

Torres £50 million

Crawley Town team build £500k

Shame on Crawley for spending that much.

[BobG]

It also bgs the question of what on Earth were Crawley thinking of when they appointed him? The Board that did that, and the current Board for keeping him, could have no defence if their own morals and propriety are called into question. Mind you, I suppose of The Gob has 'served his sentence' the law of the land suggests he is free to ply his trade again. So, that begs yet another question: what were thr FA playing at when they dealt with him?

Cheers

BobG

[AbsolutDRFC]

Despite peoples opinions on the Boston/Dagenham saga, Steve Evans still got Boston up, fair and square.

When the 11 players cross the line, it doesn't really matter how much they get paid.
On the pitch they got more points than Dagenham, simple as that.

It didn't do Rushden any good for the 3-4 years they threw money at it, before finally getting promoted.

I'm sure Donny and R&D spent far more than Crawley did.

I know he wasn't popular with the majority of our fans, after a couple of dodgy games with Boston, but he's always been very respectful of our club, fans & chairman; whenever he was interviewed on the matter.

[DonnyNoel]

AbsolutDRFC wrote:

Despite peoples opinions on the Boston/Dagenham saga, Steve Evans still got Boston up, fair and square.

When the 11 players cross the line, it doesn't really matter how much they get paid.
On the pitch they got more points than Dagenham, simple as that.

It didn't do Rushden any good for the 3-4 years they threw money at it, before finally getting promoted.

I'm sure Donny and R&D spent far more than Crawley did.

I know he wasn't popular with the majority of our fans, after a couple of dodgy games with Boston, but he's always been very respectful of our club, fans & chairman; whenever he was interviewed on the matter.

Um, no he didn't. Because of the way they were doing these contracts (and avoiding tax, paying extra bonuses) they were able to assemble a better squad they they could have done legally. Boston went up on goal difference and once drew a game with a last minute equaliser scored by one of the players in the investigation who they may not have been able to sign were they totally above board. Financial irregularities are more closely link to on pitch activities than people think.

Its not about who spends what, its about how they spend it.

Edit - he's obviously a very useful and knowledgeable manager at that level and will most likely get Crawley promoted but I think you're way off with the \"fairness\" comment re Boston.

[Dutch Uncle]

AbsolutDRFC wrote:

Despite peoples opinions on the Boston/Dagenham saga, Steve Evans still got Boston up, fair and square.

When the 11 players cross the line, it doesn't really matter how much they get paid.
On the pitch they got more points than Dagenham, simple as that.

It didn't do Rushden any good for the 3-4 years they threw money at it, before finally getting promoted.

I'm sure Donny and R&D spent far more than Crawley did.

I know he wasn't popular with the majority of our fans, after a couple of dodgy games with Boston, but he's always been very respectful of our club, fans & chairman; whenever he was interviewed on the matter.

Sorry Absolut - usually I agree with most of you posts which are normally well thought through - I can only think you didn't read the article linked earlier in this thread. It is not a question of Steve Evans' tactical or motivational prowess, or even simply spending money - he was deeply involved in illegal means and payments to get players to the club - the high class (by Conference standards) players were rightly deemed to be playing for Boston illegally. The problem was the punishment meted out was for the next season - not the season of transgression. I have had sympathy with Dagenham ever since

Maybe Auntie Merge will visit and give her views    

[AbsolutDRFC]

To be honest Noel & Dutch Uncle, I did only skim read the article and presumed it was just the southern-biased media complaining that an Essex team didn't get promoted!

Yes, in terms of being able to assemble a better class of players, through paying them in a \"creative manner\" was indeed wrong.

Hands up, I was jealous of us STILL having a larger wage bill and not being competitive that season, so that probably clouds my judgement!

Not that Garry Hill did anything like that, I'm sure.

But I do recall seeing him (whilst still contracted to Dagenham) paying a visit to my then work place to visit the owner of another football club. When he saw my DRFC mug, his face sank!!

[Dutch Uncle]

AbsolutDRFC wrote:

Not that Garry Hill did anything like that, I'm sure.

But I do recall seeing him (whilst still contracted to Dagenham) paying a visit to my then work place to visit the owner of another football club. When he saw my DRFC mug, his face sank!!

Bet you enjoyed that Absolut  

Cheers

Brian

[Dagenham Rover]

AbsolutDRFC wrote:

To be honest Noel & Dutch Uncle, I did only skim read the article and presumed it was just the southern-biased media complaining that an Essex team didn't get promoted!

Yes, in terms of being able to assemble a better class of players, through paying them in a \"creative manner\" was indeed wrong.

Aawww I was just going to nip down onto the Daggers board and invite Auntie Merge to come and [strike]have a punch up [/strike] air her views  

Beware she still visits us occasionally