Blackpool Fc vs crawly town match preview
The famous tangerine shirts of Blackpool FC will once again grace the Bloomfield Road pitch as they prepare to host Crawley Town in what promises to be an intriguing League Two encounter. This meeting between two teams with contrasting histories but similar ambitions sets up an fascinating afternoon of football on the Lancashire coast. With Blackpool being in 12th and Crawley in 22nd with both aiming for positions at different ends of the table with Blackpool hoping to start a push for the play-offs while Crawley are focusing on being in this league for another year.
With the last fixture being played on August 10th ending up with a embarrassing 2-1 loss against a newly promoted side which probably was the catalyst behind Neil Critchely getting sacked only a few weeks later due to a poor start to the season. During this game we conceded early on in the 16th minute thanks to Hepburn-Murphy with an over the top through ball with either Grimshaw and Pennington being second to ball as he finishes through the goalkeeper. For the second goal a left footed shot that appears to deflect of Pennigton curling over the goalkeeper with the goal being given to Quitirna and with pool struggling to get a foot into this it looked lights out even though during this game we created 15 chances to Crawley's 11 we still struggle to score however in the 74th minute Ash Fletcher presses the goalkeeper and was a moment to forget for Wollacott as he smashed the ball of Fletcher and pea rolled in however this wasn’t enough for pool to turn it around as we started the season off with a lose to Scott Linsey’s men.
Crawley’s form
Firstly this game will be completely different to the first game due to scott Lindsey leaving his head coach post to join league two MK Dons with his replacement being former Newcastle United goalkeeper Rob Elliot who joined from Gateshead FC leaving them in a good position. Now with Elliot in charge at the moment Crawley sit in the relegation zone in 22nd place only just 2 points of safety with Peterborough having the last place in league one at the moment Crawley have had quite a good form recently playing the likes of Wrexham, Bolton, Stevenage, Wycombe and Wigan getting 5 points from a possible 15 but gathered points at high flying Wycombe and Wigan and claiming three points at Stevenage who comfortably in 13th just one place behind the seasiders on the same amount of points. This season Crawley’s main man has been jeremy Kelly according to FotMob raiting averaging a 7.01 with the midfielder/ wingback/ fullback getting one goal and one assist in 26 games this year the American after joining from Memphis 901 FC in January 2023 with him only having three goals all together in 54 games. Their top scorer is Will Swan with 7 goals and 3 assists(also making him their top assister) in 29 games, Swan joined Crawley in this summer window from League two 3rd place Mansfield with him only beating Quitirna by one goal and Hepburn-Murphy by two meaning that could change this weekend considering Blackpool tend to concede at home or it will be a boring 0-0 cos it seems the tangerines don’t want to have a win at home.
Blackpool’s form
Well the tangerines form has good in the fact that we have not lost in ten games but eight of them are draws with 4 draws at home even though being in winning positions for two of them in the likes of being 2-0 up against Huddersfield and 1-0 up against Mansfields which both ended up in 2-2 and 3-3 draws which shows our form at home isn’t the best considering we have not won at Bloomfield since September 28th and our two away wins came with a 3-1 thrashing of struggling Exeter and a dominant 2-0 win over play-off rivals Lincoin we everyone though that would be a turning curve however still appears that isn’t the case. with Pool getting 7 points from a total 15 still 9 points off the dreams of play-offs which is becoming more of a fantasy after each week/home game. At the moment from FotMob our best player is Lee Evans getting an average of 7.57 making him the best average player in the league with him registering 2 goals and 5 assists becoming our top assister in 27 games. Our top scorer is Ash Fletcher with 6 goals and 3 assists are look like we are struggling to attack without the likes of Joseph (who left to join Hull City FC) and now new signing Tom Bloxham who is now injured and not sure when he will be back, but to be honest Fletcher coming off the bench last saturday and made an instant impact with a goal and all round being an nuisance which did cause Mansfield many problems in that second half.
Overview
With a win the seasiders can go as high as 10th place base on other results and could end up still 9 points of the play-offs with 14 games remaining and could try and turn their home form around with a win as 8 of the remaining games are at home so building some home form could be a good boost for the end of the season.
With a win for Crawley that could boost them as high as 20th based on other results and out of the relegation zone which is a tough ask for Elliot’s men but a win could kick start a good run of games keeping them out of rouble and in league one for another year.