Crawley Vs Manchester United

I tend to follow lots of teams usually due to geographical location, obviously Tottenham are my first team as I support them over any other team but I also keenly follow Crawley (My closet club), Brighton (The closest league side – until next year), Uxbridge (Home Town Team after Ruislip Manor Folded), Hayes and Yeading (From Working at Hayes), Reading (Just always liked the club), Sutton United (My Old Bosses favourite team), Brentford (Because it means a lot to my friends Dad) and Arsenal (Shocking to admit as a Spurs fan but as my Dad, Brother, Sister, Brothers in Law, Sister In Law and Nephews – Except Archie who is a Spurs fan!!! – Are all Arsenal fans it is hard to not like success that will bring happiness to so many people who matter to me, although I still love it when we beat them.)

But this year apart from Spurs it has all been about Crawley and their visit this Saturday to Old Trafford to face Manchester United, now the Manchester United message boards are full of talk of Alex Fergusson resting players and putting out a reserve side which I am sure will happen but I am sure you can expect to see the United bench full of Talent who can be brought on in case of the shock goal by Tubbs. Personally I hope that United do start with a weakened side as although I am sure for the Crawley Town players the dream is to meet Berbatov and Rooney on the field but if they are underestimated by United there is a real chance of an upset, well maybe real chance is a bit of a stretch but in the FA cup you never know. Win or lose this is Crawley’s year, the FA Cup tends to throw up one of these teams every couple of years who go on a cup run much further than their league position suggests and although Wembley is a long way off the effect that this tie has had on the club financially (This one game could easily make the club more money than it has made in some previous seasons.) and on the Town in general, suddenly everyone is proud to be from Crawley and come Saturday at 17:15 the entire town will be either in Manchester or Inside watching the game – Obviously this will not be true I know for a fact my Wife has no interest in watching it but it feels like it at the moment.

Sunday there is a very real chance that we will be waking up to just see the reality that although Crawley are favourites to end the year as a League Team even the most optimistic fan knows there is a massive gulf between the countries best League and Non-League team but that will not stop us dreaming.

Well Done Crawley Town & Premier League Predictions

Before I publish my Predictions for the next round of Premiership Games I need to reflect briefly on Crawley Town quite sensationally getting into the fourth round of the FA Cup for the first time in the clubs 114 year history. A feat made all the more remarkable for those of us who remember the repeated High Court appearances of 2006 – 2008 a period where it very much looked like the club would be wound up. I even remember the council having to look at options for the Broadfield Stadium as it appeared that HMRC would force Crawley out of business. Now under a new owner and with the Best team in Non-League football they first knocked out League 1 Swindon and then Championship Derby to set up a fourth round tie with Torquay the lowest ranked side since the first round – Already fans are talking of Crawley in the Last 16 and surely a real glamour tie if they can pull it off. It won’t be easy but even if they don’t make it then Crawley Town can be proud of what they have achieved just as the Town is sure to be proud of them.

Anyway, onto the predictions

Chelsea – Blackburn = Chelsea Win
Man City – Wolves = Man City Win
Stoke – Bolton = Stoke Win
West Brom – Blackpool = Draw
Wigan – Fulham = Draw
Liverpool – Everton = Liverpool Win
Birmingham – Aston Villa = Birmingham Win
Sunderland – Newcastle = Sunderland Win
Tottenham – Man Utd = Tottenham Win

Few strange stats, firstly very few of them have close Co-Effecients so not really a lot different than you would probably have picked if you were just guessing. The most risky one is Tottenham V Man Utd which I have down as a Tottenham Win which the figures back up but so far my calculations have proven particularly useless at picking the correct Spurs results so either my predictions are skewed by my personal bias and I have somehow coded in the particular way to give erroneous results – or Spurs just keep losing games they should really win.

A night of good results

As if Tottenham topping the group was not good enough Last night was also the night that Crawley Town booked their place in the Third Round thanks to two goals by Smith and an Own goal seeing off ten man Swindon in the Second round replay.

Crawley went 1-0 up thanks to Smith before finding themselves pegged back to 2-1 by the League opposition who were then reduced to ten men before an unfortunate own goal forced Extra Time, it was not until 28 minutes into the extra half hour that Smith struck again sending the Blue Square premier outfit through for the first time in their history.

So now they march onwards, however Championship Derby who will be visiting the Broadfield on the 8th January will be a different prospect altogether, but now is a time for celebration.