Crawley Town Football Club is an English association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex. Founded in 1896 as Crawley F.C., the team played in junior leagues until 1951 when they were admitted to the Sussex County League as part of its attempted expansion. In their second season, they finished bottom of that league's First Division with only 4 points from 26 matches, but regulations prevented any team being relegated until the division reached its full complement of 16 teams. After another last-place finish two seasons later, they were relegated, but a runners-up spot in the Second Division in 1955–56 preceded a move into the Metropolitan & District League.

In 1958, under its new name of Crawley Town, the club entered the FA Cup for the first time; its team lost in the preliminary round at home to Horsham. It adopted professional status four years later, and entered the Southern League in 1963–64. Crawley gained promotion to that league's Premier Division for the 1969–70 season, but dropped straight back to Division One. When the league expanded to create two regional second-tier divisions, Crawley were placed in the southern division. They remained in the southern half when the creation of the Alliance Premier League as the top non-league division forced another restructure of the Southern League, this time with parallel Midland and Southern Divisions. Crawley's lowly finish in 1981–82 meant they failed to benefit from yet another reorganisation, whereby the top ten teams in each regional division formed a new Premier Division, but two years later they were promoted as runners-up.

They remained at that level for the next twenty years, until they won their first Southern League title in 2003–04 and consequent promotion to the new Conference National. Despite a variety of points deductions, including ten points in 2006–07 for entering administration and six the following season for financial irregularities, as well as a transfer embargo, they held on to their Conference status. In 2010–11, they not only progressed to the fifth round of the FA Cup, coming "within inches" of drawing with Manchester United at Old Trafford via Richard Brodie's header against the crossbar, they were not distracted from the league campaign; a 30-match unbeaten run and a Conference record 105 points earned them the 2010–11 title and promotion to the Football League. As well as reaching the FA Cup fifth round again, they came third in their first season in League Two, so went up to League One, where they remained for three seasons before returning to the fourth tier. Having narrowly avoided a return to non-league football in 2023, results on the final day of the 2023–24 season meant Crawley finished in the play-off places. They beat Milton Keynes Dons 8–1 on aggregate in the semi-final, an EFL play-off record, and in their first ever match at Wembley Stadium, beat Crewe Alexandra 2–0 to gain promotion to League One.

The table details the team's achievements in senior first-team competitions and the top league goalscorer(s) from Crawley's first season in the Sussex County League in 1951–52 to the end of the most recently completed season.

Key

Key to league record: Pld – Matches played W – Matches won D – Matches drawn L – Matches lost GF – Goals for GA – Goals against Pts – Points Pos – Final position

+ Key to colours and symbols:SymbolMeaning |- Promoted Relegated ♦ Top league scorer in Crawley's division

Key to divisions: Sussex – Sussex County League Sussex 1 – Sussex County League First Division Sussex 2 – Sussex County League Second Division Met & D – Metropolitan & District League Met – Metropolitan League South P – Southern League Premier Division South S – Southern League Southern Section South 1 – Southern League First Division South 1S – Southern League First Division Southern Section Conf – Conference National League One – Football League One League Two – Football League Two, EFL League Two

Key to rounds: Group – Group stage Prelim – Preliminary round QR1 – First qualifying round QR2 – Second qualifying round, etc. R1 – First round R2 – Second round, etc. QF – Quarter-final

F – Final (S) – Southern section of regionalised stage

Seasons + List of seasons, including league division and statistics, cup results and top league scorer(s)SeasonLeague and FA Cup Individual seasons accessed via dropdown menu.League CupOtherTop league scorer(s)For seasons from 2004–05 onwards: Access season required via dropdown menu.DivisionPldWDLGFGAPtsPosCompetitionResultPlayer(s)Goals1951–52Sussex28771457892113th——1952–53Sussex 126122330112414th——1953–54Sussex 1281121555702411th——1954–55Sussex 1 321041847702417th——1955–56Sussex 22620249628412nd——1956–5734971861752514th——1957–58341271570753111th——1958–59361271765863114thPrelim——1959–60389227521162020thQR3——1960–61345425391231417thQR1——1961–6232192119055405thQR4——1962–633219498249426thQR3——1963–64South 1422022081714212thQR4——1964–65South 142225158352497thQR4——1965–66South 14617101972714412thQR4——1966–67South 146268128148606thQR3——1967–68South 1421082454852818thQR3——1968–69South 1 42211386532554thQR1——1969–70 4261521531012721stQR4FA TrophyQR2—1970–71South 13815111284684110thR1FA TrophyQR1—1971–72South 1S30155106755354thR1FA TrophyQR2—1972–73South 1S4214111759763914thQR4FA TrophyQR2—1973–74South 1S38692335792120thQR2FA TrophyQR2—1974–75South 1S383530311021120thQR2FA TrophyPrelim—1975–76South 1S389101946662818thQR4FA TrophyQR1—1976–77South 1S34149115342379thQR1FA TrophyPrelim—1977–78South 1S381491561603712thQR3FA TrophyQR2—1978–79South 1S40992244752720thQR2FA TrophyQR1—1979–80South S4613112255723720thQR1FA TrophyPrelim—1980–81South S461842464784015thQR2FA TrophyQR2—1981–82South S469122546813021stQR1FA TrophyQR1—1982–83South S34149115143517thQR1FA TrophyQR3—1983–84South S 3822976828752ndPrelimFA TrophyQR3—1984–853822887652743rdQR2FA TrophyQR1—1985–8638185157659596thQR3FA TrophyR2—1986–874214111759605313thQR3FA TrophyR1—1987–88421714117363656thQR1FA TrophyR2—1988–894214161261565812thQR4FA TrophyQR3—1989–904213121753575115thQR1FA TrophyQR3—1990–914212121845674819thQR2FA TrophyQR2—1991–924212121862674817thR3FA TrophyQR1—1992–93401612126859606thQR4FA TrophyQR2—1993–94422110115642735thR2FA TrophyQR3—1994–954215101764715511thR1FA TrophyQR3—1995–96421513145756589thQR4FA TrophyQR2—1996–9742138214967477thQR2FA TrophyQR3—1997–98421781763605910thQR1FA TrophyQR2—1998–994217101557586111thQR4FA TrophyR3—1999–2000421581968825312thQR2FA TrophyR2—2000–014217101561546111thQR2FA TrophyR3—2001–02422110116748734thQR3FA TrophyR1—2002–03421713126451647thR2FA TrophyR3—2003–04 4225987743841stR1FA TrophyR3172004–05421691750505712thQR4FA TrophyR4102005–064212111948554417thQR4112006–074617121752525318thQR4FA TrophyR1112007–08461991873676015thQR4FA Trophy162008–09461914137755709thQR4FA TrophyR3132009–1044199165057667thQR4FA TrophyR2112010–11 463112393301051stR5FA TrophyR137 ♦2011–12 46231587654843rdR5R1Football League Trophy142012–134618141459586810thR3R3Football League Trophy102013–144614151748545714thR2R1Football League Trophy82014–15 4613112253795022ndR1R2Football League Trophy192015–16461382545784720thR1R1Football League Trophy92016–174613122153715119thR1R1EFL Trophy202017–184616111958666914thR1R1EFL Trophy102018–19461582351685319thR1R1EFL Trophy142019–203711151151474813thR2R4EFL Trophy132020–214616131756626112thR4R1EFL Trophy132021–224617101956666112thR1R1EFL Trophy112022–234611132248714622ndR1R3EFL Trophy122023–24 46217187367707thR1R1EFL Trophy192024–25 4612102457834621stR2R2EFL Trophy10

Notes

References

External links Crawley Town F.C. official website