Thoughts of a lifelong fan: A lot of love for Crawley Town, but where is the next win coming from?
Where do I begin to tell the story of how great a love can be?
The sweet love story that is older than the sea, the simple truth about the love they bring to me
Where do I start?, With their first three points
they gave new meaning to this empty world of mine, There'd never be another love, another time
They came into my life and made march days fine
They fill my heart, They fill my heart with very special things
With devils' songs, with wild imaginings, they fill my soul with so much love
That anywhere I go, I'm never lonely, with them around, who could be lonely?
I head for the stand, it's always there, how long does it last?
Can love be measured by the hours in a day? I have no answers now, but this much I can say
I know I'll need them 'til the stars all burn away, And they'll be there
Well, as I am writing this on Valentines Day sitting in my front room when I would much rather be at Prenton Park, although that’s between you and me, waiting for them to come out on to the pitch and put things right after what has been, I hope, a temporary halt to our climb away from the basement of the Football league, I thought it apt to paraphrase Love Story. Why? Because that’s what it is for me and many other fans, no matter who they support.
With Theo Vassell injured, Geraldo Bajrami and Louie Copley came into the starting line up with Harry McKirdy missing from the match day squad. Lewis Richards has also been replaced by Kellan Gordon but remains in the squad on the bench alongside Ade Adeyemo, Justin Ferizaj, Dion Pereira, Charlie Barker and Jojo Wollacott .
So, without Andy Williams ringing in my ear, we began the day with Cheltenham stretching the gap between them and us to five points and still with a game in hand over the Red Devils. Tranmere, our opponents, as it stood at kick off, were just one-point further away from us, but also with that game in hand.
Where do I begin? After the first eight minutes Newport County had gone one down to MK Dons, the Shrews had gone one up against Swindon taking them above us, and we finally had a decision go our way as Tranmere had a goal disallowed, eventually, for offside. Unfortunately, four minutes later a mix up between Ronan Darcy and Jacob Chapman saw Zech Obiero, on loan from Orient put the Rovers one up.
Next week's opponents at the Broadfield, Chesterfield, then went one up against Harrogate but despite us having seven corners in the first twenty-five minutes we had slipped into 21st in the league. With everyone offering Gary Smith their opinions on what we need to do, Tuesday’s opponents Cambridge United went one up against Steve Evans Bristol Rovers so, despite us losing, the only team in the bottom seven places who had improved their position were Shrewsbury.
And then it all went wrong. Once again, our attack broke down, Rovers broke away, Bajrami gave away a penalty bringing down Charlie Whittaker which was converted by Joe Ironside, and Bristol Rovers had equalised against Cambridge United The only consolation being that Swindon had equalised against the Shrews.
At half time Ferizaj came on for Copley but without any real change in form, and then Shrews regained the lead in their battle with Swindon just as Scott Lindsey made a double change, bringing Adeyemo and Barker on for Klaidi Lolos and Akin Odimayo. In the 75th minute Harry Forster was replaced by Pereira just as Cambridge United regained the lead against the Gas and Shrewsbury cemented their three points by scoring their third goal against high flying Swindon. Harrogate then equalised in their game and Barrow scored a winner against Colchester and suddenly, we had slipped to 22nd with only Newport and Harrogate below us.
Going rather bonkers listening to the game, I had a feeling that today wasn’t going to be ours for the following two reasons, neither of which said anything about our performance today.
- Tranmere hadn’t won for six games and
- I received a WhatsApp from a friend of mine this morning advertising a Valentine’s Day massacre at Prenton Park, whilst he was holidaying on Gran Canaria. The advert showed an AI image of Scott Lindsey in a 1920s gangster/FBI overcoat, but when I asked him who would be massacred, he was non-committal to say the least.
Such, I guess, is how all Red Devils will be feeling right now, not sure where the next win is going to come from. For me, whilst the activity during the window showed commitment by our owners, perhaps it would have been wiser to get fewer better players in rather than thirteen, some of which can’t play because of the number of loanees we have in our squad.
I will be at the Chesterfield game on Saturday selling the Red Devils’ Diary, and who knows, we may have surprised a few people against MK Dons.