Swindon Town game shows a lot of hope for Crawley Town in 2022/23 - opinion

But before I do, I would like to thank all those who properly read last week’s article and to stress to everyone that I don’t get paid by anyone for my thoughts.

Anyway, I thought I would look first at the games where we lost by a single goal or drew, and what effect scoring one more goal in each of those games would have meant.

Amazingly, it would have put us in second place with 84 points and promoted.

Forget that for a moment and consider what would have happened if we had conceded one less goal in those same games without scoring anymore ourselves.

Not quite as beneficial, but we would still have accrued 74 points, which would have seen us just below the play off positions going into the Swindon game.

However, if we had scored more and conceded less in those games, we would have finished with 111 points and be champions.

Which only goes to show that you can do anything with statistics.

Our goals for, before the Swindon game, stand at just one a game, whereas our goals against stand at one and a half.

Which is exactly why we are where we are. However, what the stats do show, I believe, is that we are more in need of someone up front than we need more defenders.

And then I went to Swindon and was absolutely blown away by the quantity and volume of our support, which lasted throughout the whole 98 minutes of play and beyond, as grateful supporters gave their thanks for a sterling effort which unfortunately yielded no points reward, as once again, we were defeated by the odd goal in three.

I am only going to report on positive matters today and I include here two quotes from the Swindon Advertiser shortly after the game.

“Crawley were playing the more cohesive football in the first half,” and “With five minutes to play, Crawley cut through Swindon like a hot knife through butter down the left and almost forged a wonderfully-worked equalizer.

"Ashley Nadesan's left-footed cross was met by Tom Fellows about six yards out, but Brynn spread himself really well to deny the defender.”

Ok, I missed out the two goals in four minutes just before half time, but I must add they were not a true reflection of the play, and when Dom Telford stroked home a penalty, awarded for a foul on Nick “He must stay” Tsaroulla, Crawley looked like they might just get a result.

However, just before the “almost forged a wonderfully worked equalizer” move Swindon were awarded a penalty of their own, only to see Corey Addai make his second penalty save in a row.

A thoroughly entertaining game which, in my opinion, gives us hope for 2023/2024. When do the fixtures come out?