Crawley Town relegation: Supporters Alliance predict poor turn out as Reds face first match since drop
The Reds are up against Shrewsbury this afternoon
Crawley Town FC's Supporters Association is predicting today's game could have a poor turn out, as the Reds prepare to kick off their first match since relegation.
The West Sussex team face Shrewsbury this afternoon - just days after a draw between Burton Albion and Wigan pushed them back down into league two.
Reuben Watt chairs the Supporters Alliance, and told Greatest Hits Radio it's been a "disappointing" few weeks for fans:
" I think they always expected us to probably get relegated this season.
"That's always going to be a struggle, but I think for a lot of Crawley fans now the realisation has hit that we are going to be getting relegated and spending next season in League 2.
" I should imagine had today's game meant something, we would have probably got 5-6 hundred fans there, but now I'll be probably surprised if we get 100 or 200 fans, just because it's a bit of a pain to get to and.. neither teams are going to be playing for anything."
As for the players, Reuben said relegation means we might see some newer faces on the pitch:
"No doubt a number of our players will leave, whether it's because of relegation clauses in their contract, or whether it's because of clubs that are going to be wanting to pay for them.
"But I should imagine it'd be a good chance to get a few of our younger, probably more inexperienced players to have a bit of a run around."
Despite it all, he's keeping a positive attitude - adding that the drop puts Crawley in a better position for next season:
".This season is the most amount of fans we've had through the gate at Crawley amongst the whole season.
"While I should imagine a number of people will probably drop off, I think we're in it.
"We're going to be in a good place coming into next season now, or with Scott Lindsay coming back as manager. So hopefully a lot of the fans will be will start to come back round.
"We've had a good end to the season and so hopefully people can remember that rather than the rubbish starts the season that we had."