Crawley Town
Also written as Crawley.
The club
Crawley Town were founded in 1896 and play at the Broadfield Stadium in Crawley, West Sussex, which holds 5,567. They are the Red Devils and play in red at home, white away.
Recent seasons
Crawley were 13th in League Two in 2019/20, 12th in 2020/21 and 12th again in 2021/22. American cryptocurrency investors trading as Wagmi United LLC bought the club on 7 April 2022, and the first season under them was chaotic: manager John Yems left in May 2022 over racist behaviour and was banned from football until January 2026, Kevin Betsy was sacked, Matthew Etherington resigned after 34 days and Darren Byfield had a brief spell before Scott Lindsey arrived in January 2023 and kept them up. They finished 21st in 2022/23.
Lindsey then took them seventh in 2023/24 and into the play-offs for the first time. They beat Milton Keynes Dons 3-0 away and 5-1 at home, 8-1 on aggregate, the largest aggregate win in EFL play-off history, and beat Crewe Alexandra 2-0 in the final at Wembley on 19 May 2024 in front of 33,341, Danilo Orsi scoring on 41 minutes and Liam Kelly on 85.
League One did not go well. Eight of the eleven who started the play-off final left, Lindsey went to MK Dons in September 2024, and Crawley were relegated on 29 April 2025, finishing 21st. On 1 August 2025 an investor group led by Raphael Khalili took full ownership, ending Wagmi United's involvement.
Back in League Two in 2025/26 they finished 22nd of 24 with 8 wins, 15 draws and 19 defeats, 42 goals scored and 68 conceded. Safety from the National League was secured on 2 May 2026 with a 0-0 draw against Salford City, five points clear of the relegation places. Harry McKirdy was top scorer with eight league goals. Scott Lindsey, back in charge for a second spell, left on 22 March 2026 with a win rate of 22.6 per cent, and Colin Kazim-Richards was appointed head coach two days later. The biggest win of the season was 4-0 at home to Bristol Rovers on 25 October 2025; the heaviest defeat was 4-0 at Notts County on 20 September 2025. They lost 3-0 at home to Boreham Wood in the FA Cup first round, 3-1 to Swansea City in the EFL Cup first round, and went out of the EFL Trophy at the group stage.
Honours and landmarks
Crawley have no major national trophy. Their league titles are the Southern League in 2003/04 and the Football Conference in 2010/11, the latter being the promotion that took them into the Football League for the first time in the club's history; it was clinched with a 3-0 win over Tamworth on 9 April 2011, nineteen days after the death of owner Bruce Winfield. They won the League Two play-offs in 2024, the Southern League Cup in 2002/03 and 2003/04, the Metropolitan League Cup in 1958/59 and the Sussex Senior Challenge Cup in 1989/90, 1990/91, 2002/03 and 2004/05.
Record attendance is 5,880 against Reading in the FA Cup on 5 January 2013. Best FA Cup run is the fifth round, reached in both 2010/11 and 2011/12; best EFL Cup run is the fourth round in 2019/20; best EFL Trophy run is the quarter-final in 2014/15 and best FA Trophy run the quarter-final in 2007/08.
The heavy spending of 2010, when Steve Evans signed 23 players in six months, produced two records: Sergio Torres at £100,000 as the club's record signing, and Richard Brodie at a reported £275,000, described at the time as a Conference record fee.
Notable scorelines
No all-time record win or record defeat could be established from any source read for this dossier; Wikipedia's records section lists only cup progress.
The famous match is the FA Cup fifth round tie at Old Trafford on 19 February 2011, when Crawley, then a non-league side, lost 1-0 to the Premier League leaders Manchester United in front of 9,000 travelling supporters, Richard Brodie heading against the crossbar in the 93rd minute. The other is the 2024 play-off final win over Crewe.
Head-to-head notes
Crawley do not publish all-time head-to-head records, and none were established for any 2026/27 League Two opponent.
The one meaningful recent record is against Crewe Alexandra, who are the opening-day opponents. Crawley beat Crewe 2-0 at Wembley in the 2024 League Two play-off final, but Crewe did the double over them in 2025/26, winning 1-0 at Gresty Road on 16 August 2025 and 1-0 at Broadfield on 7 February 2026. Doncaster Rovers, also in this season's competitions, do not appear in Crawley's 2025/26 results.
Right now (2026/27)
Colin Kazim-Richards is head coach. He was appointed on 24 March 2026 for the remainder of last season and kept the club up, and has since been made permanent. Julian Gray is his assistant.
The rebuild has been extensive and almost entirely on free transfers. Centre-back Pele Arganese-McDermott joined free from Tottenham Hotspur on 1 July 2026, along with wing-back Stephen Duke-McKenna from Harrogate Town, centre-back Priestley Farquharson from Walsall and goalkeeper Vito Mannone as a player-coach. Midfielder Jude Arthurs came free from Bromley on 3 July. Forward Gianmarco Di Biase signed from Juventus for an undisclosed fee on 10 July, the one paid deal of the summer. Winger Malcolm Ebiowei arrived as a free agent and midfielder Klaudio Krasniqi free from Glacis United, both on 24 July, goalkeeper Jackson Izquierdo from Crystal Palace on 25 July and right-back Omari Mrisho from Huddersfield Town on 28 July. Ty Ewens-Findlay is on loan from Charlton Athletic from 9 July and Pemi Aderoju from Peterborough United from 10 July.
Pre-season: a 1-0 win at Eastleigh on 25 July and a 3-1 defeat at Oxford United on 28 July, with Reading at home on 31 July. The scheduled friendly at Woking on 4 August was cancelled.
Because they were one of the two lowest finishers not relegated from League Two last season, Crawley must play a preliminary round in the EFL Cup, away at York City on 3 August 2026, alongside Tranmere Rovers and the promoted York and Rochdale. The League Two season opens at home to Crewe Alexandra on 15 August 2026.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawley_Town_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Crawley_Town_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Crawley_Town_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_EFL_League_Two_play-off_final https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_EFL_Cup
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.