Torquay United v Crawley Town preview: Bringing back memories of Matt Tubbs' winner in 2011

The Reds have been selected for TV coverage for this game and they will go into the game favourites against National League side Torquay.

Despite this Torquay currently sit comfortably top of the National League, with six wins and one defeat from their opening seven league fixtures. The Gulls have started the season superbly and are the National League top scorers, with 17 goals in just seven games.

Daniel Wright is their top scorer with six of these goals, including a hat-trick last Saturday in a 5-0 thumping away at Hartlepool. It’s certainly the start Torquay required in order to challenge for a return to the football league, after their relegation in 2014.

However, league form and position can go out the window in cup competition, as was seen in a fixture involving these two teams. Crawley at the time were in the Conference and Torquay were in League Two, but a goal by Matt Tubbs saw Crawley beat Torquay 1-0 and progress to the next round, where they were to face Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Torquay will be looking for revenge in this fixture and are looking to go one better than they did last year in this competition, as they were knocked out in the first round proper by Maidstone in a 1-0 defeat.

It’s a game that Crawley will need to be ready for and will not be easy at all, despite facing lower league opposition. The FA Cup has proved many times that these type of games are potential banana skins for teams and Crawley will have to be ready for a tough battle in the South-West.

A win in this competition would be huge for Crawley as the prize money of progressing in the competition would be very useful to the football club, especially through the pandemic. It’s a game that Crawley are likely to see plenty of the ball in and create plenty of opportunities but will need to take them, or they could be the victims of a cup upset.