Derren Howard and is joined by Crawley Town expert Mark Dunford as we look at some incredible overnight news coming from the Broadfield Stadium. Crawley Town announced last night that Scott Lindsey has returned for a second spell at the club, just six months after leaving the Reds for MK Dons. He replaces Rob Elliot, who parted company with the club on Wednesday.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Okay, welcome to a special episode of the Goalmouth Action Podcast.
00:06I'm Darren Howard.
00:07I'm joined by Crawley Town expert Mark Dunford as we look at some incredible overnight news
00:11coming from the Broadfield Stadium.
00:14Crawley Town announced last night that Scott Lindsay has returned for a second spell at
00:18the club just six months after leaving the Reds for MK Dons.
00:22He replaces Rob Elliott, who parted company with the club on Wednesday, and you can read
00:26all the latest Crawley Town news at sussexworld.co.uk.
00:29Well, firstly, Mark, I think it's fair to say very few people saw this coming, didn't
00:35they?
00:36Yeah, and I am one of those.
00:38I mean, you called me Crawley Town expert in the intro.
00:41I can't call myself that because I've written pieces.
00:45And yesterday I said I would eat my hat if Scott Lindsay returned.
00:52And this is the hat I said I would eat.
00:54It's the hat I bought outside Wembley when Crawley won and that playoff final in May
00:58last year.
00:59So I'm going to get some salt and pepper, a bit of pepper just to give it a bit of taste.
01:07But yeah, absolutely, absolutely astonishing news.
01:11And yeah, it was announced at midnight last night in the end.
01:14And I was just finishing up doing my other bit where I was writing about Malika being
01:19sacked on The Apprentice, our Sussex contestant, and I thought I'd go to bed now.
01:25And then I got a little bit of a heads up saying, oh, something might be happening soon.
01:30And I was like, oh, right, OK.
01:32And then waited around.
01:33And then, yeah, there it was, Scott Lindsay announced as the new manager of Crawley Town
01:37Football Club.
01:38Goodness me.
01:39Goodness me.
01:40Yeah.
01:41I mean, yeah, he left.
01:42When did he leave?
01:43It was September, beginning of September.
01:44He left towards the end of September.
01:46He left to join MK Dons, obviously didn't go well at MK Dons on, I think it was beginning
01:53of March.
01:55Yeah, he was parted ways with MK Dons after a really poor run of results and unconvincing
02:00victories.
02:02And yeah, and everybody at the time was calling for him to return and say, oh, let's get Scott
02:06Lindsay back.
02:07But just thought it wouldn't happen.
02:09And it has.
02:10And it's just reinvigorated the fans and everything.
02:14Just overnight, a simple decision like this has just reinvigorated everybody.
02:19And there's a lot of excitement now.
02:21Good, good.
02:22And do you think it's a good move for all parties, for the club, for Scott Lindsay,
02:26for the fans?
02:27Obviously, the fans are happy.
02:28Yeah.
02:29Yeah.
02:30The fans are obviously absolutely delighted.
02:31They're just, we'll get on to some of the comments in a bit, but I wrote an opinion
02:36piece last night saying about how I never saw this coming, but I'm happy to be proved
02:40wrong at any point.
02:41Yes.
02:42Yeah.
02:43But I said in the thing, it's a masterstroke from Wagmey because the last few, since Christmas
02:50really, it really has been, it's got to that stage again, where it's got a little bit toxic
02:54at the Broadfield Stadium.
02:56The fans have really turned on Wagmey, Wagmey haven't helped themselves.
03:00Fans have at times overreacted, but sometimes reacted appropriately, I think, to what some
03:05decisions that have been made, but it's a masterstroke from them because it is a bit
03:12of a diversion, but in a very good way, it's not like a deliberate, oh, we'll just get
03:16a Scott Lindsay and that'll make everything, everyone happy again, but it's just going
03:21to reinvigorate the club.
03:22I don't think it's going to save their season this season, but you never know.
03:27But for Scott Lindsay, I mean, he comes back, he's adored at Crawley Town for what he achieved
03:32last year.
03:33Yeah.
03:34Yeah.
03:35He's, we know what he can do.
03:36He's a really good manager.
03:37He doesn't have to settle in.
03:38He doesn't have to get to know the place.
03:40He doesn't have to do all this.
03:42He can hit the ground running and he is doing that.
03:44He's taking charge of the game against Bristol Rovers tomorrow.
03:49And yeah, I think it is a real, I was a little bit, I think there's a bit of cautious optimism
03:55with it because you've seen examples in the past of heroes coming back to manage.
04:02I was going to say that.
04:03Yeah.
04:04Yeah.
04:05Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool.
04:07People like that.
04:08Sometimes it just doesn't work.
04:09Yeah.
04:10But other times it can.
04:11Yeah.
04:12Yeah.
04:14Hopefully it will be that.
04:15And I think it's an appointment for the long term.
04:17So yeah, I think, I mean, yeah, it would be odd for me to be negative right now, I think,
04:25because there is such a huge buzz around this appointment and such excitement that I think,
04:31oh yeah, it's got to be a good move.
04:33And I think people who work at the club, the fans, myself, there is just new excitement.
04:40There are journalists I've already been speaking to, messaging, et cetera, saying, oh, this
04:44is exciting.
04:45And yeah, everybody's just absolutely buzzing.
04:47So there's going to be a feel-good factor for a few weeks now.
04:51And nobody's expecting Crawley to stay up.
04:53So he's got, nobody's got anything to lose.
04:56Nothing to lose.
04:57Yeah.
04:58Yeah.
04:59Hopefully the atmosphere is just going to be great for the home games for the rest of
05:02the season.
05:03Yeah.
05:04Yeah.
05:05Yeah.
05:06And you touched on it there, but what's the reaction from the fans been like?
05:08I can imagine that they're quite excited, aren't they?
05:11Oh God, yeah.
05:12I had people DMing me last night on X and on Facebook, just saying, oh my God, I'm not
05:17going to sleep tonight now.
05:19This is the greatest news ever kind of thing.
05:23I mean, Carol Bates, she put, wow, he's back, must have been some negotiating going on there.
05:29Fair play.
05:30CCFC, Sam posted, I could cry.
05:35Matt Butcher said, people are going to wake up to an early Christmas present tomorrow
05:38because it was done so late.
05:40There are people who didn't know this had happened until they woke up this morning.
05:46Bazman, CCFC said, unbelievable turn of events.
05:48Can we have Crawley, MK boys back too?
05:50That's referring to the players that Scott Lindsay took to, MK Dunne.
05:54Yes.
05:55Well, you didn't take Liam Kelly.
05:57Liam Kelly went in the summer, but then Jay Williams, he bought in the January transfer
06:01window.
06:02Lawrence McGuire, who was there on loan, Danilo Orsi went there on loan recently as well.
06:07So I think Crawley fans are hoping that he gets the band back together kind of thing.
06:12Yeah.
06:13Yeah.
06:14Yeah.
06:15I mean, there's another guy, Darren Rundle said, I must admit, I did not have this on
06:17my bingo card and I think that is the same.
06:21And there was one fan, Luke Howell, who yesterday morning after the odds came out and Scott
06:26Lindsay was favourite from the very instant, these bookies, they know what they're talking
06:29about, don't they?
06:30Yeah, they really get it wrong.
06:32Yeah.
06:33He said, Scott Lindsay favourite to be Crawley town manager.
06:36If this will not happen, if it does happen, I'll get a tattoo of Preston Johnson's beard
06:40on my leg.
06:41Oh my word.
06:43So he got a few, he got a few tweets last night, as you can imagine.
06:47And I've offered to video that happening.
06:49So hopefully that will be quite a good, good follow up story if he follows through with
06:53it.
06:54I mean, I've eaten my hat and I've got my hats being eaten and tattoos being done.
06:58Yeah.
06:59It's unbelievable.
07:00Yeah.
07:01Yeah, absolutely.
07:02Yeah.
07:03I haven't seen one, one negative comment yet.
07:05That's good.
07:06There probably are some because it's X and it's the Wild West, but yeah, the only ones
07:10I've seen are the positive, other positive ones and it should be positive because it
07:14is amazing news.
07:15Well, I hope it works out well, works out well for him.
07:19And what did you make of Preston Johnson's comments in the announcement?
07:23Does it suggest that this is looking to build for the future rather than trying to salvage
07:26something from this season?
07:28Yeah, I said just then that I don't think they can survive this year, but you never
07:32know.
07:33I mean, I wrote my opinion piece last night that they beat Bristol Rovers tomorrow.
07:38That's a nine, there's a nine point gap.
07:41The feel good factor, they win at Rotherham the week later, Bristol Rovers loses a six
07:45point gap.
07:46Then they're at home to Peterborough on the Tuesday, April the 1st, I think.
07:51And if they win that and Bristol Rovers, there's suddenly only a three point gap between them
07:56and safety.
07:58It's a big stretch, but with a new manager bounce and that it's not out of the realms
08:03of possibility with what Scott achieved last year as well, when it was all the odds were
08:07against him.
08:08But Preston Johnson said in his statement, we are very excited to welcome Scott back
08:11to Crawley Town.
08:12We all love the culture and commitment he brings to the club and the game.
08:15We're striving for success at the highest levels of English football and to strengthen
08:18relationships with our fans and the broader community.
08:22Our lead investors are committed to a long term vision and Scott Lindsay is essential
08:25to that.
08:26That last line there was very interesting.
08:29Our lead investors committed to a long term vision.
08:31So this is building something for the future now.
08:35And Scott Lindsay is such a perfect fit for Crawley Town, as he proved last year and at
08:41the end of the season when he was brought in, when he saved Crawley, when they looked
08:43absolutely doomed to go out of the Football League and then turned it around, got promotion.
08:51There's obviously people invested in Wagme who are saying we need Scott Lindsay back.
08:56And this is the time.
08:59And now we hope we can see Scott Lindsay be here for a long time and really set those
09:05foundations of a sustainable football club.
09:08It's likely to be in League Two next year, but we all know what he can do.
09:13He knows that level.
09:14He didn't do so well with MK Dons, as we saw, but maybe it just wasn't the fit there, it
09:20wasn't the right personality for that club.
09:24But for Crawley Town, he is the right personality.
09:26And when he said we love the culture and commitment he brings to the club and the game, Scott
09:32Lindsay changed the culture of Crawley Town when he came in.
09:34He said there were these repeatedly said on record that when he came in, there were players
09:41turning up late to training.
09:44There was no commitment.
09:45There was all this and that.
09:46And he changed that in a second.
09:49Those players that Crawley Town fans loved, that he had a clear out in the summer and
09:55then went back and changed the squad, changed the culture.
10:01And look what happened.
10:02So hopefully he can do that again.
10:04But the big question is, will Wagme let Scott have his say with the transfers in the summer?
10:10I wonder if that was part of the negotiation.
10:12I wonder how that will work out.
10:14Exactly.
10:15I'm hoping to speak to Scott Lindsay today and that's going to be one of my questions
10:20is has anything changed behind the scenes that has really instigated this disappointment?
10:28Are you going to have a bigger say in the transfers?
10:30Because I know he wasn't happy with when Liam Kelly, Danilo Orsi and all those players,
10:36Will Wright, all went during the summer and in the summer last year.
10:41So, yeah, it's a long term, it's one for the future and hopefully really stabilises
10:47Crawley as a top end of League Two, possibly League One side.
10:52Good stuff.
10:53Good stuff.
10:54So they face Bristol Rovers tomorrow at the Broadfield Stadium.
10:56That's going to be rocking, isn't it, at the Broadfield?
10:59Oh, it's going to be crazy because the last few times I've been to the ground on a match
11:03day, the fans have still been really good, but it hasn't been what it was.
11:10And that's understandable because fans react to results and performances and the performances
11:14and results haven't been that great recently.
11:16So the atmosphere hasn't matched or has matched what's been going on on the pitch.
11:22So I'm just looking forward to that moment when Scott Lindsay comes out and just comes
11:27out of the tunnel and claps the crowd like he did at the beginning of every game last
11:32season.
11:33I think it's going to be a bit of a hairs on the back of your neck moment kind of thing.
11:36And they will be singing his name and yeah, it is going to be crazy.
11:40I mean, I imagine they've sold a few more tickets as well for this game in the last
11:44couple of days because yes, I'm sure at home to Bristol Rovers, a real scrappy relegation
11:51battle when if Rob Elliott was still in charge, I'm sure nobody would have got that excited
11:56about it.
11:57But now I think everybody's just going to go there and just get behind Crawley Town
12:01and they're going to see a team fighting for everything and hopefully have a new manager
12:05bounce and they can just run right against Bristol Rovers.
12:08Good.
12:09Good.
12:10Well, well, it'd be an interesting, interesting watch tomorrow, but thanks.
12:14Thanks for watching everybody.
12:15You can read all the latest Crawley Town news at sussexworld.co.uk, including hopefully
12:19an interview with Scott Lindsay's first interview with Scott Lindsay since his reappointment
12:22coming very soon.
12:23But thanks for watching.