Steve Leake, Crawley Town Supporters Alliance- taken from the programme v Eastbourne Borough.

1956, The Suez Crisis and all that but more importantly the year my dear old Dad introduced me to the real Red Devils.

Back then there were grass slopes at the Fire Station end and the side of the pitch furthest from Ifield Avenue. Indeed as a child a lot of time was spent sliding down said slopes when the football wasn’t captivating enough. Mind you, the football was pretty good for the most part, from my first game in 56 up to and including our first venture into the division below the fourth division in the 69/70 season.
In the early years we were allowed to sit pitch side of the barriers and were able to witness such memorable games as Crawley v West Ham when the West Ham side included Moore, Peters, Hurst and many more prior to them making it big and helping us win the World Cup. My memory may be deceiving me but I think the score was three nil to the Reds and the headline in the local paper was “O’Shea hammers Hammers”.

One of my most treasured memories was when Pete Conroy , our left back, kicked the ball back to the dug out after the warm up only to hit me straight in the face. The manager at the time, Fred Cook, I believe, got Stan March to wipe me down with the magic sponge and everything was alright with the world. I also remember, pre floodlights, watching the second half of the Ashford game straight after school. We were seven nil up and I only got to see one other goal. I actually thought we had won one nil as there was no score board in those days and I did not believe that we were actually 7 nil up at half time.

Promotion in 1968-69 was our first real taste of success, but it was unfortunately followed by relegation and some awfully fallow years throughout the 70s. That year though did enable me to make friends with people who have continued to be Reds Supporters and friends since then.

The eighties saw an upturn in our fortunes with a second promotion and just when it seemed we were destined to stay in the Southern Premier for ever the dream came true in 2003 /2004 and we won promotion to the Football Conference on a sunny day at Welling. I was incredibly proud to hear my name over the tannoy there as Steve Duly thanked all supporters and a few stalwarts for their support. However, for me, promotion was really won on a Tuesday evening at Worcester when Charlie Mac scored our winner and I realised for the first time that our Conference dream was going to be realised.

It would not be right not to mention our cup exploits, especially after last week’s famous win at Swindon Town, and for me the most memorable game of our previous run to the third round was at Hayes. My son David was only around ten at the time and had just spent forever queuing up to get a burger in the second half. He managed to get back to where I was behind the goal just in time for Tim Hulme to stroke home the second goal. Needless to say the burger went cartwheeling up into the air, but did he care? Of course he didn’t. The Reds were going through. The escort out of Hayes of our 17 coaches was truly something to behold!!!!

Which brings me to the next dream. I would never have thought that Crawley Town would win promotion to the Football League before we got a chance to host the World Cup again and I even feared that I may not see it in my lifetime, but it seems that we may just do it this year and I will always be grateful to my Dad (God rest his soul) for enabling me to catch the Crawley Town disease all those years ago.

Simon Smith, Crawley Town Supporters Alliance- taken from the programme v Barrow.

When I was a kid I used to go to Chelsea with my dad but I’ve followed Crawley since 1988 – my first game was against Leicester United who have long since folded. For many of those years I have been a season ticket holder, although there have been a few breaks when I have been living and working abroad.

I really enjoy non league football: you are so much closer to the action and what is going on at the club. We have also made a lot of friends through following Crawley and the trip to Manchester last week was a real party atmosphere as a result. Non league football is really like a bug, and we quite often take in other local games when fixtures permit. Sussex football is really on the up at the moment with a number of local teams challenging in their respective divisions. That can only be a good thing.

I have two kids, Shannen and Reece, and Crawley is the only team they have ever known. Reece has been going since he was 1 year old – fortunately in those days the mums of Warren Bagnall and Stewart Holmes sat in front of us and helped to keep him occupied!

Over the years Crawley has given me a lot of happy memories. Clearly this year’s cup run is fresh in the mind, but I can still remember the Brighton game in 1992 like it was yesterday – I was working in Dubai and flew back for the game. There have been plenty of highs along the way like winning the Senior Cup and Southern League, and Charlie Ademeno’s 4 minute hat-trick against Grays.
There have also been a few lows, including two administrations and one particularly depressing defeat against Canvey Island in the John Hollins era when the game was played into a gale. It’s also quite sobering to think that many of the clubs we have played in the last 25 years have either gone out of existence or have had to drop right down the pyramid to survive. It could so easily have been us.

There have also been some good players along the way. The current squad are stars in their own right, however in the years I have been watching the club has had some great servants like Tony Vessey, Cliff Cant and Ian Payne. Pick of the bunch for me though was Danny Carroll, an outstanding all round player whose goals from midfield are in my view still missed to this day.
The last 12 months have clearly seen a welcome transformation in the fortunes of Crawley: in February 2010 we attracted less than 700 supporters for a scrappy 1-0 win against Altrincham but a year later more than 9,000 fans have followed the team to Old Trafford and seen us take one of the best teams in Europe all the way. That really sums up why non-league football is so exciting. A week ago the kids at school had a laugh when they found out Reece supports Crawley Town, now the club is the talk of every school up and down the country. This is something we really have to capitalise on whilst that feel good factor is there.

The most important thing is that the last week really proves what I have thought for a long time now – the town is big enough to support a league team and if the club is managed in the right way the people of Crawley will come out to support the club. We are now a professional team, looking well placed for promotion and with the money from the cup run we now have a chance to create a legacy for future generations of Crawley fans.

Barbara Robinson (Secretary) and Chris Cheshire (Membership and Travel Officer), Crawley Town Supporters Alliance- taken from the programme v Rushden and Diamonds.

We are part of the post Town Mead generation (supporting the club that is, not in age though!) We started coming to the Broadfield regularly just a year or so after it opened. Chris had been involved, in her capacity as a TAG (Crawley Town Access Group) member, in scrutinising the plans for the stadium from a disabled supporter’s point of view and thought ‘I love football, I should go’. As a kid she supported Wolves, was a regular on the terrace and saw them win the FA Cup at Wembley. Barb, who has a daughter who supports Chelsea, was at Stamford Bridge when they won the Cup. She had recently moved to Crawley and quickly switched her allegiance from the Blues to the Reds.

We soon became season ticket holders in the disabled section of the West Stand and have a brilliant view of the pitch. The stewards in the car park are always helpful, ensuring we get a disabled parking space, with plenty of good natured banter – especially from Terry! Ann, who stewards our area, presides over it keeping a watching brief on everyone and is always ready to help any supporter, home or away, who needs it. The people around us are like our second family; they include Dave Haining and his family, Alan the cameraman and various others such as ‘Get in your box’ ‘How many more times ref?’ and ‘You’ve got ‘im!’

We go to as many away games as we can, sometimes in Chris’ car and often with an overnight stay; Barb uses the supporters’ coach if she’s travelling on her own. The away supporters are our 2nd CTFC family and it’s been good to see the numbers steadily growing over the season – long may it continue!

We were among the fans who celebrated on the pitch at Welling when we found out we’d won promotion to the Conference and so, after the draw at York, it was no contest – we had to be at Tamworth in the hope and anticipation of achieving ‘Project Promotion’. We were not to be disappointed – everything about the day was perfect: the greetings from the Tamworth folk when we arrived and after the match, the weather and of course the game itself! Apparently 563 others were there from Crawley, but you could have been forgiven for thinking there were many more, such was the noise and atmosphere generated by us all. We were all well behaved, didn’t go on the pitch at the end – as requested – and enjoyed being greeted by the whole team, management, owners and officials from the club who came across to celebrate with us. Unforgettable!

We had stuck with the club throughout the bad times hoping it would regain its integrity so we could again support it with pride. When things started to look up a year or so ago, with Susan and Bruce putting in money to clear the debts, we were involved in the planning of the Family Fun Day and were active members of the Community Engagement Team, trying to reach out to all CTFC supporters and encourage them to put the past behind us and move on. This has largely been achieved, thanks to the efforts of a number of people and the wonderful season we have enjoyed this year.

What a season it’s been! We went to all but the away game at Swindon in the earlier rounds of the FA Cup and were on our way home from Torquay when Barb’s daughter phoned to say we’d drawn Man U away in the 5th round – we had to pull off the road to recover our composure, and promptly got on the phone to book our accommodation in Manchester for the big match. We arrived on the Thursday before the match, having travelled from the Wrexham game on the Tuesday, and did the stadium tour. And who did we bump into? The whole squad and management team who were also there soaking up the atmosphere!

We’ve volunteered for quite a few jobs to help out the club over the latter part of last season and this, and have enjoyed every minute of it. We’d like to think that, with an ever more united and growing fan base, all we true fans can work together for the good of the club and help to realise Bruce’s vision of a united and successful future in the Football League.

We truly believe that this would be helped by having one united fan organisation – call it Crawley Town Supporters United, or whatever, with a dedicated Travel Club as part of it. The away travelling support has increased hugely of late; Alain Harper is to be congratulated and thanked for the wonderful job he does organising the coaches and we hope the numbers going to away matches continues to grow next season. Who knows – we may even be in with a chance of back to back promotions!

Ian Townsend, Co-Chair, Crawley Town Supporters Alliance- taken from the programme v York City.

At the age of six my friends and I were all clear on what we wanted to be when we grew up. Clifford wanted to be an astronaut. Wayne wanted to be a long distance lorry driver. Malcolm wanted to be Champion the Wonder Horse (I was always a little concerned about Malcolm). I wanted to be just like Allan Clarke.

I had very recently discovered Leeds United via Match of the Day, and although I recall being a little afraid of Jimmy Hill (and the Daleks, though obviously they weren’t on Match of the Day very often), I had permission to stay up every Saturday night to see whether “Sniffer” had put the ball in the net again. He usually had. I was soon absolutely addicted, and by the age of 13 was regularly travelling to Elland Road- away games as well by 15. I was even a founder member of the Darlington Whites.

By 20, however, it had started to go downhill. I’d always hated –and been terrified of-the violence that went along with football during that period, and it seemed to be increasing considerably and becoming more and more difficult to avoid. I was also old enough to realise that all Leeds United were interested in was my money. The matchday experience was dreadful, and the football wasn’t very good either. I was falling out of love with the game.

At 21 I moved to London, and that was a convenient excuse to stop travelling to Leeds altogether. I watched the occasional away game, and went to some internationals at Wembley as well as watching a few of the London teams once in a while, but I was simply going through the motions. The “Sky Sports revolution” completely passed me by too. All in all, I hardly went to a match at all in ten years, and apart from a mild interest in Kingstonian towards the end of the 90’s, football had become part of my past. And then, in 2000, my wife and I made the decision to move our family to Sussex.
I didn’t immediately discover our mighty Reds. I tried Brighton (once) and didn’t like it. I went to Lewes. We even tried watching Hassocks- the chips were good, as I recall, but the football so dreadful that I can’t remember the score. Or the opposition. Yet I remember the chips, which tells its own tale, unfortunately. I’m sure I used to have feet, but I don’t see them very often!
And then it was the last promotion season. I noticed, mainly from helping my eldest deliver copies of the Argus, that CTFC were earning some rave reviews. So I decided that my youngest and I would go and watch- and we did, but only a couple of times that season. I’d like to say that it was instant infatuation, but I’d be lying. We enjoyed it, but at that point CTFC were just another football team. I was obviously afraid of commitment! The first season in the Conference we began by going to the odd home game, then became rather more regular attenders, but I can recall my “road to Damascus” moment very well. It came against Carlisle United on 8th January 2005.

I’d remembered watching Carlisle on Match of the Day when I was a child. They hadn’t been very good, but they’d been a First Division team, and here they were at Crawley. There were a fair few of their supporters present too; far more than I’d expected given there had been dreadful flooding and their city centre was under a few feet of water. But it wasn’t so much their supporters that interested me. It was ours.

We got to the ground fairly early- we always do. Francis Vines was watching the team warm up, and turned to say hello. Then JB the PA engaged me in conversation as I climbed the West Stand stairs, and we discussed the game and predicted what the score would be- he was right, by the way. As the stand began to fill up I realised that I recognised many of the faces around me. I knew only a couple of them by name, and the same was true in return, but they wanted to talk, I wanted to talk, everyone got on- and they were all brought together by love for their football team. My football team. Like it or not, I’d become part of something. But I did like it-very much, in fact. By the way, we won 1-0. Paul Armstrong scored the goal and Ben Judge had to go off injured at half time. I have no comment to make on the quality of the chips!

In the intervening period I’ve missed perhaps a handful of home games and visited away grounds all over the country. There have been some bad times which I won’t recount here as most of you remember them all too well. I was press ganged into joining the Trust Committee by a certain Mr Thaddeus, and then last spring was persuaded to stand for Chair by another reprobate, Mr Ogbourne, on the premise that he couldn’t do the job for a fourth year because the constitution didn’t allow it. Having not read the constitution at that point, I eventually agreed, and once he was sure I’d come around to the idea he told me that he’d “misread it”, but seeing as I’d agreed……..It was at this point that I realised how he’d become a successful negotiator!

And then the world changed. Bruce, Susan and Alan brought in the investment, Steve and Paul brought in the team, and we began to dream. If I was to list all of the highs, I’d need an extra page, but those that stand out for me are Luton away, Guiseley, Altrincham at home, Swindon, Derby, Torquay, Tamworth- and, of course, that wonderful day when we outperformed and outsang the biggest club in the world on their own patch. There has only been one low. There’ll only ever be one Bruce Winfield.

So, what is Crawley Town to me? It is, more than ever, a family. I spend my Saturday afternoons surrounded by people I have lots in common with and real, genuine affection for. Yes, we disagree occasionally, but all families do that. At the moment the Trust, the Supporters Club and the club are talking seriously about how we create a single, united supporters organisation for next season, and I really believe it can happen. If I’d have said that twelve months ago, you’d have had me certified, wouldn’t you?

I’m not sure what happened to Clifford, but Wayne never got to drive Lorries. Malcolm, certainly, has never won the Grand National, never saved a boy from a well by tapping out a message with his feet, nor captured a collection of cattle rustlers. But if I was six years old again, I’d want to be Matt Tubbs. And I’d be quite sure that sometimes even the wildest dreams can come true.