Crawley Town opinion: Why you shouldn't look at the table until after 10 games

On top of that we have also signed Nigerian International centre back, Benjamin Tanimu from Tanzanian side, Singida Black Stars on an initial two-year deal and Bradley Ibrahim from Hertha BSC on a season long loan.

Bradley, a former Gunner, plays in midfield and replaces the unfortunate Michael Dacosta Gonzalez, who has returned to parent club Bournemouth after suffering an unfortunate injury. I am sure that the incoming players will help get us back on form when they play after the international break.

Talking international breaks, a couple of weeks ago it seemed like it was just our Burton Albion away fixture that had been called off due to call ups, but there were only four games played in our division last Saturday and they were Barnsley v Bristol Rovers, Charlton v Rotherham and Wrexham v Shrewsbury.

The most therefore we could drop in the league would be to 14th, and that would depend upon Rotherham beating sixth-placed Charlton at the Valley and Shrewsbury winning at the Racecourse ground against second-placed Deadpool, Wrexham. The Barnsley and Bristol Rovers result would only serve to give us a game in hand on both, with the winner being four points in front of Crawley and the loser just one ahead, or with both being just two points ahead. And at 5pm on Saturday September 7, Rotherham had scraped a draw at Charlton, Barnsley had beaten Bristol Rovers whilst Wrexham went top of the table with their 3-0 win over the Shrews. Thia means that without playing we have successfully stayed in 12th place.

Our next opponents on September 14 are of course, second in the table, Stockport County, who have won three games and drawn one, sitting on ten points with a goal difference of seven, having scored eight and let in just one. Their goalkeeper needs no introduction to us here in Crawley. He is of course Corey Addai. Hopefully, he will have an off day, and we will gain a valuable three points which will put us just one point behind them. You never know.

My Dad always used to tell me, back in the days of the League ladders available in many a comic, that you shouldn’t look at the tables until everyone has played ten games. Our second set of five, after Stockport County, features Wrexham away, Bolton and Mansfield at home, Wycombe away and the Shrews at home. Looks and sounds frightening but only one of those teams are above us at the moment, so on that basis I am predicting we will gain ten points from those battles which will be a fantastic achievement in its own right.

Let’s get behind the lads from Stockport County on Saturday, through those next five games and beyond and see what we can all achieve by the end of this season.

In closing, last week it was my great pleasure to hand over signed 2924/2025 shirts to the winners of the CTFC Exhibition Design a Shirt competition, Faith Gibbons, Harlow and Macey Gibbons. Well deserved, and your designs will go on display in the CTFC Museum which should be open before Christmas.