Morecambe v Crawley Town preview: Reds take on this year's League Two surprise package

The Shrimps are having a big turnaround this season and have been in the play-off places for the majority of the season, despite being one of the favourites for relegation in pre-season. Since Derek Adams took over at Morecambe they’ve only been looking up and in a recent club statement they have stated they want to become ‘a competitive and sustainable League One club by 2024’.

They’re making correct steps towards that with a brilliant season thus far and they’re also looking to get rid of the phrase ‘Little Old Morecambe’ as they strive to become an established League One club.

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At the present time their goals seem very achievable with them having a brilliant campaign and there still being a good chance of them gaining promotion this season.

The Shrimps sit in 5th just four points from the automatic promotion places but just three points from dropping out the play-offs. With the league being this tight it could go either way for Morecambe with a few bad games dropping them out the play-offs but a few good games putting them in the automatic promotion places.

It’s unpredictable at this point but if Morecambe continue the season the way they have been going they will be very pleased with their season.

Despite this they have won just two of their previous seven league games, with these being back-to-back 2-1 wins against Barrow and Salford. The Salford one was a game to remember from the Shrimps as Carlos Mendes Gomes’ goal four minutes into injury time looked like it would clinch them a point but in the sixth minute of stoppage time Aaron Wildig made it 2-1 to complete what was an unthinkable turnaround just 4 minutes before.

They’re a side similar to Crawley that never give up and don’t know when they’re beaten. It’s a threat that Crawley will need to be aware of in the closing stages, as one lapse in concentration could be costly.

When Crawley travel to Morecambe you can’t help but remember when the Reds went to the Mazuma Stadium in 2011 when they were demolished 6-0 and Reds fans will be hopping history doesn’t repeat itself. It seems unlikely it would happen again with the strength of Crawley’s squad and spirits high after an impressive 2-0 win over Exeter on Saturday.

The Reds returned to a formation with three centre backs and a pair of wing backs and this improved the performance with Jordan Maguire-Drew and Nick Tsaroulla in particular impressing as wing backs.

Crawley have had lots of success with this formation and it may be something they choose to use again given the success on Saturday. It was Crawley’s best performance since the Leeds game and if they can replicate that again on Tuesday night they’ll give themselves a good chance of doing the double over Morecambe and bringing points back to West Sussex.