Crawley Town one of the favourites to be relegated again, but boss and players won't listen to outside noise

Sometimes it works out that way, but on a lot of occasions - the promotion season being the prime example - they defy the odds.

Obviously you can’t read too much into the odds before a ball has been kicked - but they base it on signings already made, who has the lowest budget, and what money is already being put on teams.

But does anyone at Crawley Town care? Is something they can use as motivation, or is it just noise they don’t listen to?

Striker Danilo Orsi, who scored 25 goals in that historic, promotion-winning season, said they don’t listen to the outside noise and they will focus on the job in hand.

“I think in that promotion year, we knew what we said here from day one. Scott said we're getting promoted this year and that was it. We all bought into it and all believed it,” he said.

“I think that's what carried us through the season, even through the dark times, shall we say, where we went through that little period of not winning games. But again, I think Crawley Town, like you said, are always going to be at the bottom of the relegation odds and it's something, just as a group, you can't really look into, because once you step across the white line, it's 11 v 11.

“At the end of the day, we've got a job to do and we've experienced it in the past and that's what we're saying to the boys, it's more than possible.

“Don't listen to the outside noise, just concentrate on what we're doing and each day getting better and better. Across the course of the season, all that hard work obviously comes to fruition towards the end.”

And Reds boss Colin Kazim-Richards takes no notice. “People like to talk and that's great,” he said. “And some of the people that talk, or most of the people that talk, have never actually played the game in terms of a level. It's no disrespect.

“A lot of people that make these odds, again, like I said to you, have never played the game and look at certain numbers and variables are not included and context is not included. The game needs context.

The game needs variables. So me, I don't look at that and I won't be using that as motivation. I couldn't even tell you a betting company, to be honest with you.”

The former Fenerbache and Celtic striker added that he doesn’t need betting odds to motivate his players.

“I don't need that type of motivation to motivate the players that we work together with.

“I call it more objectives. I think it's more of a discipline when you live to discipline because motivation has got up and down. One day you can be motivated, the other day you might not be motivated, right? And then that affects your output, that affects your feeling to whatever you're doing.

“When you work from a discipline, it doesn't matter.”

Defender Pele Arganese-McDermott is confident the odds are wrong. “We'll change that. We'll change it this season,” he said.

Crawley Town are currently 10/3 second favourites to be relegated behind Newport County.