Crawley 4/03/08

D 2-2

Attendance: 841 ("Is that all you get at home?")

by Kirstie Bowden 

Misinterpretation has been rife on the bus of late and our trip to Crawley was no exception. Nearing Crawley, the need to leave at the next junction was a misinterpretation on the part of the person who suggested it. As soon as we left it became clear that it indeed, was the wrong junction and we looked to rejoin via the slipway. Unfortunately however there wasn't one and in scenes reminiscent of the memorable times we got lost on our way to a pub on route to Rushden and the infamous Cambridge episode, we went on a 'scenic detour'. Maidenbower was a nice little settlement, with some gardens lucky enough to have an electricity pylon situated in the middle of them. We loved one roundabout so much we ignored our exit to travel all the way round it before leaving. Events took a more sinister turn as we delved deeper into Crawley as some juveniles (no doubt holders of ASBOS) threw a liquid based missile at the bus from the tree lined central reservation. I say liquid based because heated debate surrounded the actual offending item. Egg was the early popular choice although the anti-egg brigade argued that there wasn't enough shell on the window for it to have been an egg. They instead suggested it was the seasoned pranksters concoction of flour and water. We never did find out.....

Once at the stadium we informed the safety officer. He seemed somewhat surprised and further fuelling the 'what was it?' argument, stated that "they normally throw bricks". 15 minutes before kick-off the away end queue for refreshments contained more people than the Crawley home end. During the warm up Logie proceeded to play the cross bar challenge, by himself, managing to hit the crossbar and celebrate with an empty home terrace. Thirteen minutes into the game City had a free kick at the far end of the ground. As the ref blew the whistle a mass of players huddled round the ball making it hard to discern who kicked the ball that eventually ended up in the net. His lack of goal celebration led to a general state of shock when the goal scorer was announced as number 15 Rob Edwards! I soon became deafened by my Mums celebrations which were suitably extravagant as Rob, along with Andy Taylor, is her favourite player.

Sadly our celebrations soon wore off as Crawley equalised in the 19th minute. Amidst the falling snow came further Rob based excitement in the 32nd minute as he went on a speedy run, a phrase which I never quite expected to be applicable to Rob! Charging down the wing he passed player after player, pulling off a sublime nutmeg before a really irritating Crawley player blocked his dangerous looking cross. It seemed that all of a sudden in this transformation of Rob Edwards into Roberto, super striker, our striker shortage was over!

The second half began with a rousing rendition by the 309 away supporters of "You're not number 1" all the way to 22 in honour of the Crawley goalie. Taking full use of Crawleys scoreboard we were able to time our effort at just under 3 minutes long. Early on Crawley took the lead through a penalty which later proved ironic as City had an even clearer claim turned down. Thankfully Deano saved the day in the 80th minute and although City fought hard for the 3 points, they had to make do with 1. Luckily for travelling supporters the 'bumper' crowd of 841 meant that the traffic chaos typically associated with exiting Crawley didn't come to fruition.