Crawley Town Football Club history

They stayed at this level until they entered the Sussex County League in 1951 before switching again five years later to the Metropolitan League, which was a competition for both professional and amateur sides.

In that year Crawley Urban District Council was formed and in 1957 the new body was granted a coat of arms.

In 1958, Crawley changed their name to Crawley Town.

Town retained their amateur status and went on to win the Metropolitan League Challenge Cup in 1959.

Crawley turned semi-professional in 1962 and the following year they joined Division One of the Southern League.

For the next 20 years Crawley played in the First Division in its various guises, apart from a brief taste of Premier Division football in 1969-70.

In 1984 they were promoted to the Southern League Premier Division where they remained for the next twenty years.

TEN pictures from Crawley Town v Wycombe Wanderers 18 Jan 1986

Crawley's most successful cup run at the time was in the 1991–92 season when they reached The FA Cup third round proper and played local rivals Brighton & Hove Albion, losing 5–0 in front of 18,301 at the Goldstone Ground.

The first match there was a friendly against Port Vale on July 24 1997.

In October 1999, the club was bought by John Duly after a period of 2 months in administration, with Billy Smith appointed as manager.

In 2004 Crawley were promoted to the Conference, having won the Southern League Premiership title along with the Southern League Cup and Championship Match Trophy.

In 2005, the SA Group bought the club and made the decision to go full-time for the first time in the club's history.

By August 2006, only one bid had come in for the club which was from the current owners; it was rejected by three to one; the administrators were therefore obliged to liquidate the club and it was announced that the club would fold later that day.

For the start of the 2007–08 season, a new regime was put into place which included Victor Marley as club Chairman and Steve Evans as manager, with Paul Raynor as an assistant.

In April 2008 Prospect Estate Holdings Limited took control of Crawley after buying it from the SA Group in conjunction with former owner John Duly.

In October 2009 Mr Winfield announced that Crawley Town would finish the season debt-free 18 months after the new owners had inherited liabilities of more than £500,000.

A slightly modified version of the crest was introduced in 2010-11.

History was made on April 9 2011 when Reds won promotion to the Football League after beating Tamworth 3-0 to stretch their unbeaten league record to 26 games.

10 August 2013: Now starting to appear on the Statistics Page, the complete statistical history of Crawley Town Football Club complete with accompanying match videos, photos, press clippings, programme scans etc.

The 2014–15 season saw Crawley struggle for form, and Gregory resigned for health reasons near the end of 2014, with the club in the relegation zone.

On Sunday 3 May 2015, Crawley were relegated to League Two, following a 1–2 defeat at home to Coventry City.

In March 2016 Turkish businessman Ziya Eren became the club’s new owner and replaced Yates with the highly-respected and experienced former Chelsea, Arsenal youth and reserve-team coach Dermot Drummy in May 2016.

16 April 2017 - Multiple sets of photographs:

19 August 2018: Multiple sets of photographs:

9 June 2019: New Photo Sets added to index

However, in March 2020, the League Two season was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Crawley still having a further 9 games to play.