Travelling to Crawley is a road trip of 125 miles from Nailsworth that takes a little less than 2 and a half hours. 

By Supporters Club Coach.  For full details of Away Travel including pick up times: – look at FGR Away Travel – Forest Green Rovers Supporters Club (fgrsc.com)  For further information, including pickup point locations see Away travel arrangements 22/23 – Forest Green Rovers Supporters Club (fgrsc.com)

Book your coach ticket with your match ticket from FGR (£5 adult discount for FGR Supporters Club members) but note that you need to call FGR Reception to get the coach discount (phone 0333 123 1889 Monday to Friday, between 9am and 3pm).  Please try to book early.

By Car – Car parking at the stadium costs £5 but there is a good amount of street parking nearby.  Post Code for SAT NAV: RH11 9RX

By Rail – Rail travel is possible via Paddington and Victoria stations and takes about 3 and a half hours.  It looks possible to be able to return on the same day.  Crawley station is just over a mile from the ground or you can get a Fastway number 10 bus to the ground from by the station (this runs every ten minutes).  See if you can buy a bus ticket and train ticket combined from Stroud.

Admission prices are pretty reasonable – East Stand (seated) : Adults £20, Concessions (students & over 60’s) £15, 17-20 year olds £5, Under 17’s free with a paying adult.  North Stand Terrace: Adults £15, Concessions £15, 17-20 year olds £5, Under 17’s free with a paying adult.. Away supporters are in the North Stand (which is low roofed terrace) or seated in the East Stand in a section nearest the North Stand where the view of the action is pretty good.

The East Stand at Crawley.

The North Stand at Crawley.

Crawley are in 15th place in the league.  At 17 points above the relegation places (19 points above FGR), they are looking pretty comfortable.  They are 8 points away from the play-off places.

Crawley don’t seem to do drawn games – they have only had 3 draws in their 29 games.  Other than this they have had 12 wins and 14 defeats.  Their home record is 7 wins and 7 defeats.

In the return fixture in October last year, Rovers won 2-1.  Crawley’s opener in the 6th minute was cancelled out by 2 Callum Morton goals before half-time.

Crawley are on a run of 3 successive defeats ahead of their home game against Walsall on 13th Feb.

Central midfielder Liam Kelly joined Crawley from Rochdale last summer.  Kelly is a good passer of the ball and leads the list of assists at Crawley.  He lines up alongside right sided midfielder and Crawley captain, Ben Gladwin.

Also joining Crawley last summer, after spells at Harrogate and then Grimsby, is striker Danilo Orsi.  He is currently Crawley’s joint top scorer with 13 goals.  Also joining this summer from Gateshead is fellow striker, Adam Campbell, who also has 6 goals for the season and is their 2nd top scorer.

Danilo Orsi – top scorer at Crawley.

Irishman Liam Kelly joined Crawley last June.

Crawley manager, Scott Lindsey, joined the Red Devils in January last year, after a short spell managing Swindon.  Scott Lindsey’s assistant at Swindon, Jamie Day, followed him to be the assistant at Crawley.  Both will be familiar to Rovers fans – Scott Lindsey was assistant to Mark Cooper at FGR for about 5 years from 2016, while Jamie Day was assistant to Ady Pennock from 2015 to 2016. The pair did a great job in keeping Crawley away from relegation in the latter half of last season.  They have also succeeded in putting Crawley in a safe mid-table 15th in the league.

Crawley haven’t been been shy about ringing the managerial changes in recent years.  Scott Lindsey is the 13th Crawley manager in the last 10 years.  Scott has already lasted considerably longer than average!

Scott Lindsey – fondly remembered at FGR.

Jamie Day in Rovers days.

The club have been around since 1896.  However, they didn’t become fully professional until 2005, and came into the EFL for the first time in their history in 2011.  They won promotion to League 1 in their first season in the EFL and spent 3 seasons on League 1 before relegation back to League 2 in 2015. Last season they struggled, finishing one place and 3 points above Hartlepool & Rochdale who ended up being relegated.  

Crawley have been ringing the managerial changes in recent years. Steve Evans (most recently the Gillingham manager) was in charge for 5 years until 2012. After this Crawley had 10 managers in about 8 years (including Dean Saunders and Harry Kewell) before appointing John Yems, in December 2019.  Yems was sacked in 2022 and was followed by Kevin Betsy, then Matthew Etherington before finally hitting a period of relative stability in Scott Lindsey who took charge in January last year.

Rovers’ record against Crawley in the last few seasons has been fairly good – 6 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses in their eleven encounters since 2017.

Crawley’s mascot seems to have changed.  Let us know if anyone can throw light on the mystery.  Reggie the Red has either become fiercer or more ‘child-friendly’.  Which Reggie will be at the game?

Gareth Southgate – a junior & secondary school pupil in Crawley.

Romesh Ranganathan – Crawley born and bred – former maths teacher in the town – still lives in Crawley.

The Cure are from Crawley – Robert Smith formed the band with Crawley school-friends in 1975.

Dan Walker – ex-BBC breakfast presenter, former sports presenter, Strictly contestant, and now Channel 5 news presenter was born and raised in Crawley.

Crawley is in West Sussex, some 28 miles south of London and 18 miles north of Brighton.  It started as a village, then market town, then developed coaching inns on the route from London to Brighton. The 2 most significant events in Crawley’s history were its designation as a New Town in the late 1940’s and the development of Gatwick Airport (just outside the town) as London’s second airport in the 1950’s.

Economically, the town has developed into the main centre of industry and employment between London and the south coast.  It has a large industrial area supporting manufacturing and service companies, many of them linked to the airport.

All of this has shot Crawley’s population up from less than 10,000 in the 1950’s to more than 120,000 today

It may be hard to argue that Crawley is the most beautiful of towns, but it has ranked highly in some surveys as a great place to live, based on its quality of life and employment prospects.