Relegation Six-Pointer and Six Fruit Pastilles

As Miss approaches her magical #100 matches - we journeyed to West Sussex for a massive League One fixture between Crawley Town and Cambridge United.

After listening to Aaron Paul, Jobi McAnuff and Mark Bonner discussing the Cambridge merry-go-round this week, and the instant impact of Neil Harris’ return, I thought we’d make the journey across to Crawley. (I’m an avid listener of 72+ Podcast on Football Daily - BBC)

As a journey it’s not great, either M3, M25 or M23 (our journey home) or cross-country to Alton, Farnham, Guildford, Horsham and then into Crawley (our journey there). Only 60 miles but took its time!

I’d done my homework on Crawley’s ground so knew parking was non-existent. We parked in a street that had an alleyway at the end that went straight to the fan zone behind the goal at the Broadfield Stadium. Free on-street parking a five minute walk from the ground, good start 👍

I bought tickets on their easy to use website on the morning of the game, emailed to me, so a scanned QR code for entry.

We arrived with plenty of time so had a walk around the ground.

There is a shop but it’s small and was quite busy so we gave that a miss, but we were accosted by some friendly police officers that gave Miss a wave and a sticker, she was thrilled 👋

We went into the fan zone and got some chicken bites and chips for “sharing”… I got one chicken bite and a couple of chips 🤦‍♂️ someone else was obviously hungry!

Once we had finished lunch, we navigated the turnstiles and went into the ground. It is a quirky entrance, in the corner of the ground and you can access both the seated stand and the terrace. There are toilets here and baby changing facilities - hats off Crawley Town 👏🥳

Our seats were down by the Cambridge fans so we walked along the front of the stand, with Miss trying to climb every flight of steps before we got to our seats. This was the view:

As you can see, a beautiful sunny day! The Cambridge fans generated a decent atmosphere and packed out the terrace behind the goal, a decent following from the U’s. Their noise grabbed Miss’ attention:

Miss is used to roaming around open terraces with our many non-league travels. This means when she is forced to sit all game, it is challenging. Some sweets being consumed by the people sat behind us was the tipping point for her to decide she’d seen enough - I think by this time the Crawley fans felt the same!

We roamed around in the fan zone and Miss enjoyed the freedom again - maybe we’re due back on a few more terraces before going seated again! But she loves her football, cheers goals, claps and dances to the pre-match music. She also likes to roam - do you blame her?!?!

Another great adventure, decent facilities at Crawley, just perhaps not suited for us yet, or next time we’ll go on the terrace instead! Massive win for Cambridge and Neil Harris makes it two wins from two already!