Mark Dunford, head of sport for Sussex World and editor of the Crawley Observer is joined by Crawley Town legend Sergio Torres.
Sergio was part of Steve Evans’ side that went from Non League to League One and also played at Old Trafford in the fifth round of the FA Cup in 2011.
Mark talks to Sergio about Crawley Town's achievement this season, what it was like to play at Old Trafford and advice he has for the players preparing for Wembley. He also reveals his link with current manager Scott Lindsey
Sergio was part of Steve Evans’ side that went from Non League to League One and also played at Old Trafford in the fifth round of the FA Cup in 2011.
Mark talks to Sergio about Crawley Town's achievement this season, what it was like to play at Old Trafford and advice he has for the players preparing for Wembley. He also reveals his link with current manager Scott Lindsey
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SportsTranscript
00:00 Hi, I'm Mark Dunford and I'm a sports editor of Sussexworld.co.uk and editor of the Crawley
00:08 Observer.
00:09 I am delighted to be joined by Crawley Town legend Sergio Torres.
00:13 Sergio was part of the Crawley Town team that got promoted from non-league to League Two
00:19 to League One under Steve Evans in the 2011, 12, 13, 14, all those years.
00:27 And yes, he's here with us now and we're going to talk about Crawley Town getting to Wembley.
00:31 But first of all, Sergio, tell us where you are.
00:33 It looks lovely there.
00:34 Hello, Mark.
00:35 Good afternoon.
00:36 Yeah, it's beautiful.
00:37 I moved to Mallorca about two and a half years ago with my family from sunny Sussex to sunny
00:47 Mallorca.
00:48 Yeah, it's stunning.
00:49 It's about 22 degrees right now.
00:50 So yeah, very beautiful.
00:51 Lovely.
00:52 And what are you doing out there?
00:53 So I work, I'm still coaching.
00:57 So I used to work for Russell Martin Academy in Brighton for Russ, you know, I'm a good
01:08 friend with Martin.
01:09 And when he set up the academy in Brighton, I was working there for six years and then
01:14 I moved here.
01:16 And Russell's foster brother, he lives here for 10 years, Rob, and he's set up his own
01:23 academy here as well called Russell Martin Academy.
01:26 So perfect, perfect transition from one place to another.
01:31 And also we started about two years ago, we started coaching professional players when
01:37 they come in off season.
01:40 That's through Mallorca Pro Training.
01:44 We had James Madison, for example, last year training here, just this pitch behind us.
01:50 We've got a few bigger players, so I'm looking forward to this June.
01:54 Hopefully we're going to have some more players.
01:55 Oh, wow.
01:56 That sounds great.
01:57 So we're here to talk about Crawley Town getting to Wembley.
02:01 How much have you followed Crawley Town this season?
02:04 Yeah, to be fair, whenever I can, you know, I've got time on Saturday afternoon, I'm flicking
02:09 between all the games, between all my old clubs, Crawley Town, Wiccan Wonders, and of
02:16 course I watch Southampton because of Russ.
02:18 So I've been watching it a bit and then I've been, I have to tell you, I've been so impressed.
02:23 I watched the last two playoff games last week and they play better football than we
02:30 were there.
02:31 Absolutely amazing to watch.
02:35 I was so impressed with so many of the players and Scott is doing an amazing job.
02:41 It's funny because I know Scott from a long way back.
02:44 I went on loan to Lincoln when I was at Peterborough for his three.
02:50 He was a first team coach there with Chris Sutton.
02:54 When he took over at Crawley, I messaged him and he remembered me from them times.
03:02 So I'm really, really looking forward to seeing him on Sunday.
03:07 Yeah, so when you first met Scott Lindsay and you saw him as a first team coach, could
03:12 you tell he had what it took to lead a team and take them to Wembley?
03:16 To be fair, I think I only played for Scottie and Chris Sutton about three games because
03:23 I got really bad ankle injury.
03:26 But in the first game, I remember we won 1-0 against Old Ashore and I scored a winner,
03:32 which doesn't happen very often.
03:36 I remember Scottie from, you know, I was only for, like I say, a few weeks, a couple of
03:41 months and I was really impressed.
03:44 Really, really nice guy and his sessions were brilliant.
03:48 So I was so impressed to see him.
03:51 So happy to see him doing well at one of my clubs at Crawley now.
03:55 Absolutely.
03:56 Yeah, you talk about how what good football they play.
04:00 Can you imagine a team when you were playing in League Two, was it 12, 13 years ago, playing
04:05 football like this and succeeding?
04:07 No, no, absolutely not.
04:12 You know, with Steve, we had a great, great time and amazing from back to back promotions,
04:17 but we didn't play this amazing style of football playing from the back.
04:21 It was more winning second balls and playing their half, which worked because we have very
04:27 strong defenders.
04:28 But I was so, so impressed and I always wondered why it doesn't work in League Two conference
04:34 to play this lovely style of football and succeed.
04:37 So I was so pleased to see both teams.
04:40 I know Mike Williamson as well at MK.
04:41 I used to play with him.
04:43 Both teams playing the right style of football and then succeeding in League Two.
04:49 I'm really, really hopeful that Scott and the boys can do a Wembley on Sunday.
04:56 Yeah.
04:57 And what players have impressed you for Crawley Town so far?
05:02 The centre, Mikelle, I thought he was outstanding in both games.
05:05 He was absolutely, absolutely.
05:09 Like making things, I don't think he ever got tired, that guy.
05:11 I don't know.
05:12 I wasn't as good as him, but it reminds me like, literally when I used to play there,
05:18 I used to run everywhere and then trying to get involved in defence and attack.
05:23 And I thought he was amazing.
05:24 I was impressed, very impressed with the goalkeeper as well and the striker, Orsi.
05:30 I thought he was brilliant.
05:32 But the whole team, they have, I don't know, they seem, I don't know personally any of
05:37 the players, but they seem to have a really good connection in between them, looking at
05:41 it from the outside, working as a team and they believing in what Scott is doing.
05:47 Yeah, absolutely.
05:49 Obviously you had a huge game when you were at Crawley Town, going to Old Trafford.
05:54 You probably got an inkling how these players are feeling right now, leading into a big
05:59 game.
06:00 What advice would you give to those players this week who probably have never played at
06:04 Wembley?
06:05 You know, my dream since I moved to England, one of my dreams was to play at Wembley.
06:12 I never had the chance, so I couldn't really tell the players anything.
06:18 But yeah, playing at Old Trafford is still a big game and it was FA Cup.
06:23 The memories I got from that game is the night before I didn't sleep.
06:26 So I don't know what can I recommend them for to try to sleep the night before and trying
06:32 to enjoy the occasion.
06:34 I know it is massive for a club like Crawley, a family club, first time in the history to
06:40 play at Wembley.
06:43 I think enjoyment is the right word, trying to take everything in.
06:48 These moments, like you mentioned, they don't come very often.
06:52 I played 10, 15 years in England and I never had a chance to play at Wembley.
06:57 I played at Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge, but Wembley is that place where everyone dreams
07:03 of playing.
07:05 And we have experienced this season, the fans at Crawley Town have been incredible and they've
07:11 really taken to this team.
07:13 You were a huge fan favourite when you were at Crawley.
07:16 How much do you miss those fans and what was it like playing in front of them when they
07:20 were on full song?
07:21 Honestly, I have the best memories at Crawley.
07:26 It helped as well that we hardly lost any games in the first season.
07:33 So we got them on site pretty quickly.
07:35 But yeah, I think that particularly with me, they enjoyed that.
07:40 I had bad games, but at least I put all the effort, I was always giving 100%.
07:46 I got the best memories, honestly.
07:48 It was really sad the day I left.
07:51 I shed one or two tears.
07:53 I've always been in touch.
07:55 Whenever my parents came from Argentina to watch, to travel to the game, everyone absolutely
08:01 looked after them and that made me feel so proud of the Crawley fans.
08:07 I can't wait to see them on Sunday and hopefully I will meet one or two old faces.
08:10 Yeah, so you're going on Sunday then?
08:13 Yeah, yeah.
08:14 I've been invited by the EFL and I'm really, really excited.
08:20 I will be there from Sunday morning and watch the game and hopefully see Scott and meet
08:27 some of the new players.
08:28 Brilliant.
08:29 Excellent stuff.
08:30 Finally, I spoke to Matt Tubbs earlier and I asked him how would the Crawley team from
08:37 2011, who played at Old Trafford, get on against this Crawley team this year, do you think?
08:43 I think I've got an inkling from what you said earlier, but what kind of game do you
08:46 think that would be?
08:47 I don't know.
08:48 I think they will try to play from the back.
08:54 We will press the hell out of them.
08:58 We're definitely going to press the goalkeeper and try to make mistakes.
09:03 Tubbs and Maka were near-time and we had in the middle, Bully, Josh, myself, whoever played
09:13 there, we were just like dogs.
09:15 We'll be a long ball style in playing second balls and playing on the half against a good
09:22 team playing good football.
09:23 It will be an interesting game, I tell you what, because we have amazing players like
09:28 Kyle, Pablo Meos, Dino, Hanti.
09:35 We have really, really good footballers in the squad.
09:38 I think that's why it worked as well because we were running like dogs, but we also have
09:45 players who, Tubbs was unbelievable, who decide games for us.
09:49 Yeah, absolutely.
09:50 And finally, what's your score prediction for Sunday?
09:55 I predict 3-1.
09:56 I know it's a bit ambitious, but that's my score.
10:02 Excellent.
10:03 Well, thank you so much for talking to us, Sergio.
10:05 It's been an absolute pleasure, as always.
10:07 I think we last spoke at Leeds, didn't we?
10:09 I think it was when they beat Leeds, you were in the stadium.
10:12 Yeah, I spoke to Sergio.
10:15 Well, hopefully we're celebrating a similar victory on Sunday and I'll hopefully see you.
10:19 So thanks for joining us.
10:21 No, fingers crossed, Mesh.
10:23 And yeah, hopefully I will see you Sunday.