Thoughts of a lifelong fan: I am all for price rises for season tickets at Crawley Town

Personally, if the extra income raised helps our playing budget and improves our squad, I’m all for it.

I know some people have expressed concern that children under 14 will now have to pay £4 a game but, with the cost of a season ticket at £23 for that age group, that reduces to just £1 a game.

With over 100,000 people watching the team at home during 2024/2025 and nearly 2000 season ticket holders we will need the extra income because the attendances at the Broadfield will inevitably decrease because League 2 will not have the size of away support that we have become used to this year in League 1.

Barnet are coming into the EFL which will mean another relatively easy pair of games to get to, and I would dearly love Southend United to be successful in the National League playoffs rather than away trips to York, FGR, Halifax, Oldham or Rochdale. All will become clear over the next couple of weeks, but it looks like AFC Wimbledon, who won 1-0 against Notts County on Saturday, are trying their hardest to avoid having to play us next season. Having said that, there is still the second leg to come of that semi-final so let’s hope Messrs. Nick Tsaroulla and Kellan Gordon can get a win at Plough Lane.

As far as we at Crawley Town are concerned, the announcement of a retained list will hopefully have materialised by the time you read this in print, and even more hopefully, in my opinion at least, it will include the majority of the players we already have. There are definitely some players in our squad who will have attracted interest from other clubs, but hopefully Scott and the owners will do their utmost to persuade them that their value will increase even more if they stay with us, stay injury free and contribute to a season that will hopefully bring us automatic promotion.

There are some players we could afford to lose but equally there are others we can’t. We will all have our own thoughts on this I’m sure and it is vitally important that we replace players that leave, for whatever reason, with players of a higher quality if we are to seriously challenge for honours.

Without naming names, I believe we must solve the goalkeeping situation this coming year as, even if JoJo Wollacott remains as our first choice, we need to have confidence for whoever goes between the sticks whilst he is on international duty or is injured. Our main priorities, I believe, are to strengthen our squad from back to front, including a goalkeeper, a defender who can also be good in the opposition box at corners and set pieces, a ball winning midfielder and a goal scoring centre forward who will not only score goals but unlock the potential of those playing alongside him.

Having spoken to Preston in the last week I know he is optimistic about next season, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we signed more players from the States, hopefully in the same mould as Jeremy Kelly and Liam Fraser, and elsewhere as we did with Bradley Ibrahim and Josh Flint.

I know there are fans out there who will not feel as positive as I do about the future under our current owners, but let’s see if we can all pull together in the same direction to ensure we bounce back up to League 1 at the earliest opportunity.

One thing is certain, I won't be playing walking football again as am currently nursing a grazed knee and badly bruised ribs which means my dream of making the squad have finally been put to bed. Sorry Scott.