“The dream don’t come no closer by itself. We gotta run after it now” – for now, that ‘dream’ is nothing more than staying in this division. Don’t let that put you off though. After a string of rubbish results and a change in management, we certainly got to run after it now. “It” obviously being three points, the man with a plan being Darren Sarll, and the first game, well, being Crawley…
Stevenage v Crawley Town: Brave New World?
It’s now pretty much expected that a change in management means you’ll win your next game. Probably. Unless you’re someone like Aston Villa. The first thing we’re thinking ahead of this weekend’s encounter with old foes is how we’re going to approach it. After signing another striker and a winger-slash-striker on deadline day, are we going to come out for this one all guns blazing?
Well, why not?
We like looking at the form book before every game, if only to stop it gathering dust – and we can’t stand dusting. This week, it’ll tell you that Crawley’s defensive record on the road is even worse than ours. OK, they’ve managed a shutout on their travels this season, but they’ve shipped 31 goals in 14 away games – to compare, we’ve conceded 29 in 15. And there’s more good news too.
The Reds might sit above us in the table (who doesn’t?) with a six-point cushion to snuggle up to, but they’ll come to the Lamex having lost their last five away games on the bounce. It’s good news to a certain extent, but – as we’ve seen in recent weeks – you could have put a team of traffic cones in front of us and we still might have found a way to concede a goal. But that’s in the past.
Our record against our chums from whichever of the two Sussexes they’re from is favourable – even if we’ve only won one of the five Football League meetings to date. In the 20 instances of Stevenage v Crawley Town (or vice-versa) down the years, we have 10 wins to their seven, scoring 29. And we’ve both come a long way since our first tete-a-tete in the ’87 Knights Floodlit League.
How’s this one going to pan out? Well, the bookies are coming down on our side with best odds of 6/5 available with a number of them. You’ll get 29/10 (Coral) on Boro’ to win to nil, which is something we’ve not done since Gillingham in November. But it’s a tough one – perhaps some Championship tips will help you in your decision making if it won’t come easy to you this week.
It now looks like a brave new world is taking shape at the Lamex after a dismal January that was as much about the weather as it was about results on the pitch. But if the new gaffer – caretaker as he might well be for now – shows that he can walk the walk half as he’s been talking the talk, then you can count us in. Right now, it’s going to be Sarllito’s Way or the highway…
BoroGuide’s Crawley Town club profile – not the messiah, just a very naughty boy…
