Thoughts of a lifelong fan: Play like that and it could be a wonderful end of the season

Just as I submitted last week’s article to Sussex World, the last five words needed modifying, thanks to a 96th minute winner for Charlton Athletic from Thiery Small which meant that Shrewsbury were bottom.

Somewhat cheered that we weren’t actually bottom it made me hopeful of a Mansfield away style performance circa 2024 on Tuesday night and, apart from not winning four one, that’s exactly what we got! On Tuesday I was sitting waiting for the game against Mansfield having just read about our new loan signing from Tesco, I mean Brighton and Hove Albion. Welcome to Kamari Doyle, a midfielder who played for Southampton before joining the Seagulls and has been on loan at Exeter City this season scoring four goals in the process.

He played against us for Exeter City in the four all draws over the Christmas period, although he was substituted prior to the Grecians comeback.

An hour before the Mansfield game kicked off and two more players have joined the club, goalkeeper Matthew Cox on loan from Premier League Brentford who went on to make his debut against the Stags, and defender Rory Feeley from Barrow on a one year contract. Feeley didn’t make the squad for the game, but Kamari Doyle made the bench.

Notable absentees from the squad that played Nigel Clough’s side were Ronan Darcy, Junior Quitirna and Jeremy Kelly. I made a mental note to ask Preston on Thursday later in the week as to whether it was their fitness or possible departures from the club that was keeping them out of the squad. Jojo Wollacott was also missing from the squad with Jasper Sheikh sitting on the bench.

What an incredible game it was, not only because of the good performance and result, but also because of the unusually generous and gracious remarks from the Mansfield boss, Nigel Clough.

Mansfield, having been humbled by Cambridge United (relegation zone) in their last match had me worrying that they might react to the ignominy of that defeat by taking it out on the Red Devils, but that proved not to be the case as Crawley matched them in every department and thoroughly deserved the victory.

Watching it on the television was, I believe, more stressful than watching the game live, albeit a lot cheaper. The supporters who were at Field Mill were a credit to Crawley and hopefully they will thoroughly enjoy the promised “pie and pint” courtesy of the players.

I’m sure that the travelling fans and those who were watching from home would have enjoyed the combination of excellent performance and result. Next up were Wrexham, who themselves had won only once since the beginning of 2025, and had lost three times including a defeat to relegation threatened Shrewsbury Town.

What we needed to do was go for them like we did against Mansfield, which is what we did.....after going a goal down in the first minute.

The squad did not include Ronan Darcy, who had departed earlier in the week to Wigan Athletic, but Jeremy Kelly was on the bench, although Quitirna and Wollacott were not. News concerning their status as Red Devils and news about other incoming players will be known before you read this article in print, as the transfer window will have shut at 11pm on Monday, February 3.

In my opinion we were dreadfully unlucky to have lost in the 95th minute of the game, especially as the highlights clearly show Kelly being fouled in the build up to their winner.

Our equaliser, just five minutes earlier was a stunner from Bradley Ibrahim, but unfortunately it didn’t bring us the rewards we so rightly deserved. Play like that against the other sides in the relegation mix and we could yet see a wonderful end to the season.