With Crawley Town set to visit the EBB Stadium for our only home friendly of the 2022/23 pre-season campaign, here’s our match preview ahead of tomorrow’s clash
WHO ARE THE SHOTS PLAYING?
Crawley Town, based in West Sussex, were founded in 1896. Originally Crawley Football Club, Crawley changed their name to Crawley Town Football Club in 1958. Known as “the Reds” and “Red Devils”, Crawley are currently playing in League Two.
HOW DID THEY DO LAST SEASON?
Crawley finished in 12th place in EFL League Two last season, ending the season with 61 points, 23 points off the drop and 16 points off the play-offs, a comfortable mid table finish for Crawley.
HOW HAVE WE GOT ON AGAINST THEM IN THE PAST?
Almost 6 years ago was the last time Shots encountered Crawley. The pre-season friendly ended in a goalless draw as we headed towards the 2016/17 campaign. Aldershot’s last competitive fixtures against Crawley came back in 2011 in League Two. The Shots earned a 2-2 draw in the away fixture but fell to a 1-0 defeat in the home fixture.
Aldershot’s last win against Crawley came back in 2008. A 1-0 victory away from home helped The Shots make a return to League Two, gaining automatic promotion back into the Football League.
WHO IS THEIR GAFFER?
The Crawley Head Coach is Kevin Betsy. He joined the club in June 2022 following the departure of John Yems. Betsy is rated very highly for his youth development, having spent five years in charge of the England u15’s, 16’s, 17’s and 18’s, and has also enjoyed a spell working with the Arsenal u23s.
During his playing days he made close to 600 appearances, turning out for the likes of Fulham and Barnsley, making the majority of his appearances for Woking. Betsy has worked with developing some of the best youngsters in world football, such as Jude Bellingham, Fabio Carvalho and Eberechi Eze.
Betsy was given an initial two-year contract at Crawley in June, making the step up from youth development to first team management for the first time in his career.
CRAWLEY PLAYING SQUAD:
Crawley have been busy this window bringing in keeper Corey Addai, centre-back pairing Dion Conroy and Tobi Omole, right back Travis Johnson, Liverpool loanee James Balagizi and most notably, Dom Telford from Newport County – who bagged an impressive 25 goals last season.
ANY EX-SHOTS?
‘Keeper Glenn Morris spent a few seasons with The Shots between 2012 and 2014 and joined Crawley in 2016. New signing Dion Conroy spent 6 months on loan with Shots from Chelsea u23s in 2016, making 15 appearances while with Aldershot.
Sam Matthews and Jack Powell have both played for the Shots on loan from Crawley. Powell turned out for the Shots between September and December 2019, scoring 3 in 20 appearances. More recently, Matthews made 5 appearances on the 21/22 season during a month long loan between February and March towards the end of last season.
31-year-old Kwesi Appiah has played for many clubs throughout his career and actually made 2 appearances in a month long spell between September and October back in 2012 on loan from Crystal Palace.
HOW TO GET TICKETS:
The Aldershot ticket office will open at 12pm on matchday for both home and away supporters for those wanting tickets on the day (we advise that you arrive earlier). If you wish to purchase tickets beforehand, they are available HERE via the Flowte website.
PLEASE NOTE: We will NOT be accepting payments at the turnstiles, supporters who wish to attend the game on the day must purchase tickets from the ticket office.
Turnstiles will be open at 1:30pm.
WHERE TO FOLLOW THE MATCH:
As usual, live tweets will be sent out via @OfficialShots on Twitter, for anyone who wishes to keep posted during the match.
After the game, we will post highlights on our official YouTube channel for anyone who wishes to catch a replay of the game after the final whistle.
