Crawley Town (H) 18th Jan, 3pm

Match Centre Archive Match Centre 19/20
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“Cause the devil’s red, but his money’s green"

- Neon Sky, Bob Seger (1973)

Walsall entertain Crawley Town this weekend in a clash of the mid-table titans that promises to be classic mid-table fodder served up by two teams destined to end the season in mid-table.

Crawley Town

Crawley sit 13th in League Two, one place and one point below the Saddlers and with a current record of P27 W7 D11 L9 F35 A37 32Pts. The Red Devils are in decent form under new manager John Yems and enjoying an unbeaten five game run that includes home wins over Northampton and Bradford.

Their away record is the third poorest in the division, having won just one league game on the road in 13 attempts. That said, they’ve still managed 10 points on their travels, which is only three fewer than Walsall have taken at home this term…

Bez Lubala leads Crawley’s scoring charts with 11 goals and 2 assists, followed by Ollie Palmer (8G, 2A), Nathan Ferguson (5G, 3A) and Reece Grego-Cox (5G, 2A).

Recent League Form

Dec 26 Northampton (H) Won 4-0
Dec 29 Grimsby (A) Drew 1-1
Jan 01 Colchester (A) Drew 1-1
Jan 04 Forest Green (H) Drew 1-1
Jan 11 Bradford (H) Won 2-1

Previous Meeting

As mentioned above, Crawley have won just one away game in the league this season. In fact, they have only won two away games in all competitions.

Predictably, the other victory came at Bescot back on September 28th as a 3-2 win saw them knock Walsall out of the League Cup. Filipe Morais (21’) and Tom Dallison-Lisbon (48’) gave the visitors a comfortable lead before a penalty from Caolan Lavery (54’), his first Walsall goal, narrowed the score.

Ashley Nadesan restored the visitors’ two-goal lead minutes later and despite another goal from Lavery (71’), the Saddlers didn’t have enough to save the game.

Crawley went on to reach Round Four of the competition, beating Norwich and Stoke along the way before defeat at home to Colchester cost them a Quarter Final tie at Manchester United.

Played for Both

The only current link is Matt Sadler, who ended his first spell at Walsall (46 games, 1 goal) to join Crawley in 2012. He enjoyed two seasons in West Sussex (92 games, 2 goals) before joining Rotherham in 2014, though he returned for a ten game loan at the Broadfield Stadium shortly after.

Billy Clifford joined Walsall from Chelsea in 2014 but only managed a handful of first team games. The midfielder went on to spend two years with Crawley (43 games, 1 goal) before dropping into non-league. He currently plays for Wealdstone FC of the National League South.

Prediction

Crawley are on a good run and it’s very difficult to predict a home win these days. One-all draw.

Match Poll

  • Walsall Win
  • Draw
  • Crawley Win

0 voters

2 Likes
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I am going to be bold and forecast a HOME WIN…3-1 !!!

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3-2 win as the last two meetings have been the same it’s going straight on my goals galore no draw betfred betting slip.

4

Still in 2 minds if I’m going to the match tomorrow. There’s a good chance that my 7year old lad will make my mind up for me though as the guilt of not taking him will get the better of me . Could be an entertaining game for a change. I’m going for 3-2 to the saddlers in front of our first turnout of the season below 4K .3891

3 Likes
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Even with our early season goal scoring issues we still managed to stick a few past these and now with a bit more confidence in our side I’m gonna go with a 3-1 win.

6

2-1 :crossed_fingers::crossed_fingers::crossed_fingers:

1 Like
7

1-1 draw

8

2-1 home win

Nothing less tomorrow with DC asking for a reaction

1 Like
9

This.

Think they’ve changed their manager, so may be a slightly different prospect, but should have enough to at least not lose this one.

Goals at the Homeserve end well overdue.

2 Likes
10

This is the thing about this Walsall team. We’ve scored 5 against Crawley this season, but also conceded 5!

11

Agreed I’m pretty sure there was talk of us being “solid” at one stage earlier on in the season which seemed to disappear rapidly went 3-0 up away at Exeter too let’s not forget.

12

@WalsallOne is being bold i am being sensible :smile::wink: after witnessing that first half last week i am going with a 1-1

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13

Not very well, my granddaughters having my ticket. Hope we win.

14

image
Matchday tomorrow!
Come on you saddlers!

1 Like
15

I can’t attend as I am ill - grr!
2-1 Lavery & OG, Fred for them

16

3-1 to us. We will bounce back after the disappointment of last week.
Lowest crowd of the League season perhaps.

17

Quite a few people suggesting a low crowd attendance tomorrow what we thinking 3700?

18

Proper mid table duel this, 2-2.

Walsall would be top 3 contenders with Ollie Palmer and Lubala upfront imo. Shows what is needed for next season.

Actually just having a quick look at their squad and they picked up Lubala on a free from Blues in the summer and they also a keeper and Dacres-Cogley on loan from them aswell.

Wonder what sort of link there is behind the scenes but I can’t understand how Crawley click their fingers and Blues send decent young players to them and yet Walsall haven’t exploited these links since when Mantom, Sawyers and Downing were all signed within six months.

1 Like
19

3-2 to the Saddlers, the home hoodoo has to end eventually!
Less than 3,600 in attendance.

1 Like
20

I am getting seriously worried about you now.
Are you taking your medication ?