Opinion: Is Crawley v Stevenage just a tinpot derby?

When your own fan-base refers to the club as “tinpot” there are not likely to be many Football League clubs that Crawley can feel at least on a par with in terms of size and stature.
Over they go ... action between Crawley and Stevenage on Tuesday night / Picture: Jamie Evans/UK Sport ImagesOver they go ... action between Crawley and Stevenage on Tuesday night / Picture: Jamie Evans/UK Sport Images
Over they go ... action between Crawley and Stevenage on Tuesday night / Picture: Jamie Evans/UK Sport Images

Tuesday night’s opponents Stevenage are one of the few that do fit in that category. Both Crawley and Stevenage are post war “new towns”, both have populations around 100k and both have produced national sporting icons with Crawley of course being the childhood setting for England manager Gareth Southgate while Lewis Hamilton honed his driving skills round Stevenage’s many roundabouts.

From a footballing perspective both achieved promotion to the football league for the first time in the 2010s, both have experienced promotion to League 1, both have an average crowd around the 2.5k mark and both achieved arguably their greatest spells under managers who weren’t everyone’s cup of tea.

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Under Graham Westley during his four spells at Stevenage, the ball spent longer in the air than a Boeing 737. Steve Evans on the other hand built up a siege mentality at Crawley that didn’t win many friends outside of the club - but both achieved great success and are remembered fondly by each clubs’ supporters.

Sadly, on Tuesday night the performance from Crawley was a million miles from those heady days under Evans. Yems suggested there was something missing in the final third. He’s not wrong, since the Leeds game the side has averaged just seven shots a game, compared to 12 shots per game up to that point. There is a significant lack of creativity in the side currently which needs to be addressed.

Maybe the telling stat is that the players with the most assists this season are Nadesan and Nichols. Both have five each, more than any of the midfielders. They are having to provide all of the attacking flair between them because it isn’t coming from the midfield. George Francomb from right back has more goals and assists than any midfielder.

On the rare occasions the midfield has managed to get a shot away the accuracy of the shooting is woeful. Max Watters had a shots-on-target percentrage of 65% this season, of the starting midfield trio on Tuesday night, currently Powell is on 26%, Hessenthaler is on 25% and Josh Wright hasn’t managed a shot on target yet.

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All teams suffer slumps in form and I believe that is all this currently is, however if the team are to break away from the current malaise there is going to be a need for the players in the middle of the park to start contributing more in the final third, otherwise it could be a long run in.

Early season play-off hopes appear to be evaporating and the next installment of the Tin Pot Derby on May 1 will likely be nothing more than an end of season battle between two lower mid table clubs punching above their weight in the Football League.