'That's the foundation' - Crawley Town boss wants to harness the feeling everyone felt after the Salford draw

Fans ran on to the pitch to celebrate with players and staff before being led into chants of ‘we are staying up’ by Kazim-Richards and captain Jay Williams.

There was an enormous sense of relief, but also euphoria know they were still a League Two side going into the 2026/27 season.

And now Kazim-Richards, was has been named as the new permanent manager following his initial seven-game stint, wants to harness that feeling to show where they want to be – and where they don’t want to be.

"So that's the foundation, right?”, said the 39-year-old. “That's the foundation in terms of people understanding what we are willing to give, what we are willing to do, how much it meant. But it's not the foundation for where we want to be.

“It's like two sides of the coin to me. So it's a great foundation in terms of we all have those memories. We all struggle together and now we're on the path to success, God willing.

“But also it shows me that everybody who was willing to struggle with us in the times of struggle. Now, it tells me as well where what shouldn't be.

“What happened last year and what's going on. It's a 10-month relegation battle. It's not happening again.”

And the former Brighton and Derby striker said you can’t pay for lessons like that.

He added: “I can use that as an example of now going into the new season of what can't be done and what shouldn't be done and what's non-negotiable in terms of where we need to go.

"It's crazy, but you can't pay for those lessons. So going through that with seven games, to go now coming into the new season, we've all been through that. We build that foundation, but it's somewhere where we don't want to go back to.

"It's somewhere where we know we can't go back to, so it's actually a great feeling.”

Kazim-Richards and his side will find out their fixtures for next season’s campaign on Thursday, June 25 at 12noon.