I went along to the recent fans’ forum, which was well attended. There were lots of valid questions asked and frustrations aired, with most if not all of those present being Red Devils fans who have the interests of the club at heart even if they disagree with decisions made some (or all) of the time.

Sadly there were a very few there who seemingly just wanted to impress their mates and express extreme opinions without any interest in listening to any answers.

Despite what some of the younger fanbase think, they haven’t invented dissatisfaction with owners or management; many of the older fans who were at the forum have been around an awfully long time and seen many a period of crisis over the years, sometimes being closely involved in it themselves.

While having a chat after the forum, I was reintroduced to long-term fan Chris Russell who, just a couple of nights previously, had been one of the 67 diehards at Mansfield. I had seen Chris posting on various social media sites over the last few years but hadn’t twigged that we had actually played in the same team together many years previously! Friend and fellow season-ticket-holder John Moon got us together and we started remembering our days in the supporters’ football team known as Town Mead Wanderers (TMW).

TMW were formed by a group of us fans in 1972 alongside another supporters’ team, CTS (Crawley Town Supporters), who in hindsight were better than us, which is probably why we got TMW up and running to give ourselves a game.

Initially TMW only played a few friendlies in 1971/72, with our first game a 2-2 draw against George Hotel at Southgate Playing Fields (forever known by us players as “Crap Meadow” – you would know why if you ever played there). That match was where Chris Russell joined myself, John Moon and Steve Leake in the side, all of us being present at the forum the other night. Four out of a team of eleven from fifty-two years ago, all still following their local club so closely, is quite a good percentage, I think.

Town Mead Wanderers Programme team line up February 1972

A short while later, for our third-ever game, we actually produced a programme, and in the team for that game (George Hotel again, on 20th February 1972) were four more players who still support the Red Devils, albeit not as regularly, partly due to location or health reasons: John Walton, Dud Brown, Tony Clements and Sir Bob Morell (our manager and knighted by us for services to rubbish football and arriving after the nets had been put up on a Sunday morning). Our goalkeeper on that day, Bruce Winfield, would have undoubtedly been one of the club’s biggest fans had he still been with us, while there are other later Wanderers and CTS players who attend home games at Broadfield (Colin Lowes and Stuart Ormanroyd to name just two). Paul Lynch, our number 7 from that first programme, moved to East Anglia shortly after that match, but I bumped into him and his family at our last visit to York City not that many years ago!

At the time when TMW and CTS were formed by us football-mad Crawley fans, the Red Devils were coming towards the end of a relatively successful few seasons in the Southern League despite relegation out of the Premier Division after one season in 1970. Aside from that relegation – and with an attractive attacking style of play with strikers Eric Whitington and Phil Basey knocking in the goals, backed up by local talent such as Dave Haining, Vic Bragg and goalkeeper John Maggs – Crawley were always likely to entertain. Some high-scoring victories and appearances in the FA Cup first round featured in those seasons in the early 1970s, and we even won the Southern League Merit Cup as the highest scorers over the season in 1970/71, with 84 goals (even though we only finished mid table in SL Division One).

This leads me on to our rearranged game against Stevenage, who we had come up against in that 1970/71 season when they were known as Stevenage Athletic (they seem to have changed names several times over the years we have played them). As Stevenage Town, they were regular opponents in our first four seasons in the SL. Highlights of that time for me are an impressive 4-0 victory (Bob Finch, Wally Watkins, Dave Haining, Dave Robertson) at Broadhall Way on 5th November 1966. As can be seen in one of the cuttings, their manager was very complimentary about our performance, which showed what we were capable of after an inconsistent start to the season. It was all the more surprising as Stevenage were challenging strongly for the title and up to that point had conceded only two league goals all season. They would eventually be promoted to the Premier Division in third place, while we came a disappointing sixth – and this only achieved after winning our last seven matches of the season.

Stevenage Nov 5th 1966 Report

Stevenage Nov 5th 1966 Managers Compliment

While scanning the 4-0 victory cutting, I noticed another article on the page, Alan Peden (writing as Palandene) and his “Sport Talk” column. In it there are quotes from our manager Fred Cook bemoaning the lack of recognition for non-league football and suggesting that what is needed is a non-league cup! Bearing in mind this was November 1966 and the FA Trophy didn’t appear for another three years, I think Fred should have got himself a job at the FA or set himself up as a fortune teller! Clearly times haven’t changed that much, though, regarding the lack of recognition, which if anything is worse now than it was then and seems to cover the lower divisions of the Football League as well.

Fred Cook aka “Mystic Meg”

Just prior to that fine win at Stevenage, on the previous Tuesday 1st November 1966, we had achieved an excellent 3-3 draw (Finch, Dave Hannan, Brian Knight) at Southern League Premier Division leaders Wimbledon (the original ones) in the Premier Midweek Floodlight League. These two teams – if you cast aside any arguments about lineage – are two of our longest-lived rivalries along with Burton Albion and Cheltenham (both of whom we met in our first SL season, 1963/64).

1st November 1966 Wimbledon PMFL 3-3 draw

Back to Stevenage, and another highlight for me was a visit to Broadhall Way to face Stevenage (Athletic this time!) on 17th April 1971 when our forward partnership of Phil Basey and Eric Whitington (my hero at the time) were at their most lethal. There was one classic moment in that game – when we were attacking and had forced a corner – which I never tire of recounting. With us supporters (I think current fans Steve Leake, Alan Harding and Alain Harper were among those alongside me) just behind that goal, we heard one of their players shout to the one marking Eric Whitington, “Don’t lose him, Ray!” Well, Ray did lose him and Eric scored two goals in a 3-2 victory which came in the middle of a six-game winning run to complete our season – which we finished off with a 7-1 home win over Dunstable, the scorers being Whitington, 2, Basey, 2, Micky Griffiths, 2, and Dave Haining. That win at Stevenage was also some revenge for a pre-Christmas 4-2 home defeat (Peter Barnes, Basey) a few months earlier, on 5th December 1970.

April 1971 “Don’t Lose Him Ray” Stevenage report

That Christmas 1970 was a complete wash-out, as after a 1-1 home draw (Tony Goodgame) with Cheltenham Town on 19th December, we would not play another league game for a month and our next home game wasn’t until 6th February 1971, a 5-1 home win (Micky Griffiths, Basey, 2, Goodgame, 2) over Barry Town. We followed that up with a fine 3-0 win over Burton Albion (Griffiths, 2, Barnes) before crashing back to earth three days later with a 5-0 thrashing by eventual champions Guildford City on 15th February. That was followed by a 3-2 loss (Dave Cockell, Basey) in a fiery encounter in the return match at Cheltenham. We wouldn’t win again until 1st April, after which eight wins and a draw gave us a disappointing but more respectable mid-table finish in the league. I say disappointing, because that squad of players had so much talent and had to try (and often did) to play attractive attacking football on pitches that modern players would consider only good enough for grazing sheep or cattle.

1970/71 Squad (minus Eric Whitington) – So Much Talent

I originally wrote this article for the postponed fixture just before Christmas, a time when many of us remember those no longer with us, whether through death or distance. I decided to leave this last section in, as last year our family lost a mad-keen Red Devils fan in my uncle, Christopher Robin Hollamby (known as Rob and with a birthday on Christmas Day), and one of our sons, Thomas, is currently living in Toronto and getting his Red Devils fix through the iFollow service.

Eric “The Shuffle” Whitington 1972/73

I mentioned earlier that Eric Whitington – one of the 1970/71 squad – was a particular favourite amongst us regulars, famed for the “Eric shuffle” (which I can’t describe other than to say it regularly left opposing defenders flat on their backsides). Sadly, I learned this year via ex-player Vic Bragg (another of that talented squad) that Eric died, I believe last year, and so I will end with a picture of him in action and dedicate it to all our departed ex-players and supporters.

Mick Fox – mjfjo@yahoo.co.uk