The 2023–24 season was the 128th season in the history of Crawley Town Football Club, an association football club from Crawley, West Sussex, England, and their ninth consecutive season in League Two, the fourth tier of English football. Whilst the club occupied a mid-table position for much of the League Two campaign, a run of form towards the end of the season allowed the club to finish in 7th, the lowest position to qualify for the play-offs. After defeating Milton Keynes Dons over two legs in the semi-finals, the club beat Crewe Alexandra 2–0 at Wembley Stadium in the play-off final to secure promotion to League One, the third tier of English football. The club also competed in three cup competitions; they were eliminated in the first round of both the FA Cup and the EFL Cup, and whilst they progressed beyond the group stage in the EFL Trophy, they were eliminated in the round of 16 by Peterborough United.
Background and pre-season In April 2022, the club was taken over by American cryptocurrency investment group WAGMI United, whose stated goal was "to reinvent broken legacy sports management models" and wanted to turn the club into "the internet's team". Upon taking over the club they set the target of achieving promotion to EFL League One by the end of their second season. After manager John Yems was suspended by the club and later banned from football for 18 months for racist abuse of his own playing squad, the club brought in Kevin Betsy as manager ahead of the 2022–23 season, who wanted to implement a possession-based style of football and instilled new training methods to the club, such as the use of a drone to record training sessions, and collecting urine samples from players to monitor hydration levels. Betsy was sacked on 9 October 2022 however, with the club bottom of League Two and having won one of 12 league matches, and his assistant manager Lewis Young took over on an interim basis. Young's tenure at Crawley saw the club pick up 12 points from seven matches, but despite his expectation to be given the manager role on a permanent basis, the club instead decided to appoint Matthew Etherington as manager on an 18-month contract. However Etherington was sacked a month later, having managed just three matches as manager, and Darren Byfield took over from him on an interim basis. Swindon Town manager Scott Lindsey took over as manager on 11 January 2023 alongside his assistant Jamie Day, with the club 21st in the league. Linsey won his first match as manager of Crawley, a 3–2 win at home to Salford City, but were winless in their following 8 matches. Despite this, a 2–0 win away to relegation rivals Hartlepool United on 22 April left the club needing a single point from their remaining two matches to confirm safety, which they picked up in the following match with a 0–0 draw against Walsall.
Crawley played 7 pre-season matches ahead of the 2023–24 season, and won their first three, all by a 2–1 scoreline, away to non-league sides East Grinstead Town, Three Bridges and Dover Athletic. This was followed by a 4–0 defeat at home to Premier League club Crystal Palace, and a 9–1 defeat to League One club Portsmouth, played at Portsmouth's training ground behind closed doors. Crawley then played two further friendlies away to non-league clubs, and defeated Heybridge Swifts 7–1 and Bromley 2–1 to round off their pre-season campaign.
WinDrawLoss DateTimeOpponentVenueResultF–AScorersAttendance19:30East Grinstead TownAway2–1Tsaroulla 66', Kastrati 90' 15:00Three BridgesAway2–1Orsi (2) 9', 44' 19:45Dover AthleticAway2–1Tsaroulla 32', Nadesan 78' 19:45Crystal PalaceHome0–45,56215:00PortsmouthAway1–9Forster 40'019:00Heybridge SwiftsAway7–1Tsaroulla 4', Orsi (2) 43', 54', Telford (2) 45', 62' pen., Lolos 51', Kastrati 74'17315:00BromleyAway2–1Lolos 33', Orsi 56'
Players Manager Scott Lindsey wanted to overhaul the playing squad due to concerns over his inherited squads' attitude – he told BBC Radio Surrey that after his appointment in January 2023, it took 28 days before every player turned up on time. Lindsey said that he "had to put that straight" and that "some players had to go" and "we had to bring in – in my opinion – better people, better staff, better players in terms of their attitude and professionalism". Like in the previous season, the club adopted a data-based recruitment strategy, though co-owner Preston Johnson told The Athletic that they placed more trust in this approach compared to the previous season, saying "we just decided to trust in math". He added that the approach was to "find players who has been overlooked or under-regarded but had good underlying numbers for creating, or limiting, expected goals".
Following the end of the previous season, it was announced that Ludwig Francillette, Ben Wells, Jordon Mutch, Anthony Grant and Davide Rodari were to be released upon the expiry of their contracts, whilst three other out-of-contract players remained in contract negotiations with the club; Grant later re-signed for the club on a short-term deal, before leaving the club early in the season to sign for Welling United. Of the other three players, midfielder Rafiq Khaleel later signed a new two-year contract with the club, and goalkeeper Roshan Greensall signed a one-year contract, whilst forward Aramide Oteh left to sign for Walsall. Defenders Tony Craig, Brandon Mason and Joel Lynch, midfielder Jake Hessenthaler and forward Kwesi Appiah all had their contracts terminated by mutual consent. Meanwhile, four players were transferred out to fellow League Two clubs during the summer transfer window: forward James Tilley joined AFC Wimbledon for an undisclosed fee, fellow forward Ashley Nadesan joined Gillingham for an undisclosed fee, midfielder Jack Powell, who was given the club's Player of the Season award for the previous season, transferred to Crewe Alexandra, and on 25 August 2023, striker Dom Telford who was the club's top scorer in the 2022–23 season, joined Barrow for an undisclosed fee. The club did however exercise options within defenders Harry Ransom and Nick Tsaroulla's contracts to extend them by a further year.
On 22 June 2023, the club announced the signing of midfielder Liam Kelly on a two-year deal following the end of his Rochdale contract. A week later, forward Danilo Orsi joined from Grimsby Town for an undisclosed fee, with Johnson claiming Orsi's impressive expected goals numbers were what motivated the club to sign him. Defender Joy Mukena, forward Klaidi Lolos and winger Ade Adeyemo all joined on free transfers, with all three players having played for non-League teams during the previous season. Winger Harry Forster also joined the club with Crawley paying his former club Bromley "undisclosed compensation". Jay Williams joined the club for an undisclosed fee from Brackley Town; Williams was described as a defender on the club website, but ultimately manager Lindsey opted to play him as a defensive midfielder, later describing him as a "tough-tackling, aggressive midfield player" and "one of the best midfielders in this division". Defender Will Wright, midfielder Ronan Darcy and forward Adam Campbell also joined the club on undisclosed fees, from Gillingham, Swindon Town and Gateshead respectively, whilst the club also brought in three loanees before the start of the league season: goalkeeper Luca Ashby-Hammond from Fulham, attacking midfielder Kamarai Swyer from West Ham United and defensive midfielder Aaron Henry from Charlton Athletic. Defender Laurence Maguire joined the club on loan from Chesterfield on 30 August on a loan initially until January, though that loan was later extended until the end of the season.
Forward Sonny Fish had joined the club on a free transfer on 8 August, but would not make a league appearance, and would instead have loan spells at Worthing, Tonbridge Angels, Welling United and Gateshead over the course of the season. Roshan Greensall also went out on loan, and joined Broadbridge Heath on loan until January 2025, and midfielder Jayden Davis spent the season out on loan, first at Farnborough and later at Braintree Town.
During the January transfer window, loanees Ashby-Hammond, Swyer and Henry were all recalled by their parent clubs. The club brought in goalkeeper Ryan Sandford and midfielder Jeremy Kelly on free transfers, both signing short term contracts until the end of the season. Defender Mustapha Olagunju also joined the club on a loan until the end of the season, from Huddersfield Town.
Transfers In DatePlayerTransferred fromFee 29 June 2023 FW Grimsby Town Undisclosed 1 July 2023 MF (Rochdale) Free transfer 3 July 2023 DF (St Albans City) Free transfer 4 July 2023 MF (Bromley) Undisclosed compensation 15 July 2023 FW (Oxford City) Free transfer 18 July 2023 FW (Cray Valley Paper Mills) Free transfer 18 July 2023 MF Brackley Town Undisclosed 28 July 2023 MF Swindon Town Undisclosed 1 August 2023 DF Gillingham Undisclosed 5 August 2023 FW Gateshead Undisclosed 8 August 2023 FW (Leyton Orient) Free transfer 9 January 2024 GK (Dartford) Free transfer 1 February 2024 MF () Free transfer
Brackets around club names denote the player's contract with that club had expired before he joined Crawley.
Out DatePlayerTransferred toFee 2 June 2023 DF (Dorking Wanderers) Mutual consent 22 June 2023 MF AFC Wimbledon Undisclosed 29 June 2023 DF Mutual consent 30 June 2023 DF (Eastleigh) Released 30 June 2023 MF Released 30 June 2023 FW (Walsall) End of contract 30 June 2023 MF Crewe Alexandra Free transfer 30 June 2023 FW Released 30 June 2023 DF Released 2 July 2023 FW (Boreham Wood) Mutual consent 20 July 2023 MF (Dagenham and Redbridge) Mutual consent 27 July 2023 FW Gillingham Undisclosed 13 August 2023 DF Mutual consent 25 August 2023 FW Barrow Undisclosed 25 November 2023MF(Welling United)End of contract
Brackets around club names denote the player joined that club after his Crawley contract expired.
Loaned in Date fromPlayerLoaned fromDate until 14 July 2023 GK Fulham 10 January 2024 29 July 2023 MF West Ham United 15 January 2024 4 August 2023 MF Charlton Athletic 5 January 2024 30 August 2023 DF Chesterfield End of season 1 February 2024 DF Huddersfield Town End of season
Loaned out Date fromPlayerLoaned toDate until 3 August 2023 GK Broadbridge Heath 25 August 2023 MF Farnborough 25 August 2023 FW Worthing 29 September 2023 FW Tonbridge Angels 16 January 2024 MF Braintree Town 8 February 2024 FW Welling United 28 March 2024 FW Gateshead
Appearances and goals Source: Numbers in parentheses denote appearances as substitute. Players with names struck through and marked left the club during the playing season. Players with names in italics and marked * were on loan from another club for the whole of their season with Crawley. Key to positions: GK – Goalkeeper; DF – Defender; MF – Midfielder; FW – Forward