TASTE OF THE TERRACE: Crawley Town cannot overcome Notts County hoodoo

Along with games against Yeovil Town, our encounters with Notts County invariably tend to disappoint.

Either we cannot organise ourselves well enough to get into the game or we see a decent performance that is ill-rewarded.

This was one of the former. It wasn’t as though Crawley played poorly but they allowed themselves to be harried and hustled and so spent too much of the game on the back-foot.

Our away form is puzzling as the support appears stronger than it usually does at Broadfield.

At home the atmosphere often seems subdued whilst at Meadow Lane 165 vociferous travelling fans made themselves heard.

The team really appreciate the level of support they receive so that is probably not a big factor.

So are they (subconsciously perhaps) aware, as are many fans, that they are facing one of “those” games? It seems unlikely, so what is the problem.

In his pre-match interview Dermot Drummy made the same two points that he always does.

I’m sorry if that sounds overly critical as I am aware that diplomacy forms part of his role.

He told us the game would be tough and I can’t quibble with that.

There really does seem to be no such thing as an easy fixture in League Two.

He also said, in so many words, that Notts County were a decent side and this is an opinion I would question even if we shouldn’t expect the manager to say anything different.

The table does not lie and we went to Meadow Lane to take on the side that had the worst return over their last ten games of any in the EFL.

The whole business is based on winners and losers and promotion and relegation.

That’s what league football is all about.

The odds therefore (if perhaps not the gods) favoured Reds and a draw would surely not meet our aspirations.

So we embarked on another challenge that Crawley seem to shirk – that of an “ought to” game.

My pragmatic view beforehand was that this match was not a prospect to be savoured and there was certainly no comfort to be drawn when the outcome was much as I feared.

By the end of the game another sublime strike by James Collins had been cancelled out by two scrappy goals.

Both of County’s goals came from very close range and from rebounds off post and keeper.

Both were poor goals to concede.

But at the same time County enjoyed far more scoring opportunities brought about by their pressure and, tellingly, hard-worked keeper Glenn Morris was voted Man of the Match on the coach home.

It’s a team game and maybe for once individuals performed better than the team as a whole or maybe it was simply that hoodoo.

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