Olly encounters Orient fans just at the right time...
When Reds’ fan Olly Huddlestone left to go travelling a few weeks ago we gave him a Crawley Town shirt and told him to spread the gospel about the club to as many football fans in other parts of the world as he could.
Here's his latest update from Australia...
After the craziness of Asia, it was nice to finally be in an English speaking country where I could drink tap water and didn't have to haggle when trying to buy something!
Whilst staying in my hostel in Cairns I met Dennis Zum Dohme from Germany, who seemed to know quite a bit about the Reds. He supported Borussia Monchengladbach and was the only one of his three friends to know about the club; the others supported lower league German outfits FC Dynamo Dresden.
Dennis's knowledge came from the Steve Evans days as Crawley manager and the first League Two stint via the popular Football Manager game.
He must have had his tactics spot on as he only took an impressive four seasons to get Reds to the Premier League and be crowned champions.
He even went one further the season after, acquiring Ballon d'or winner Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Aguero and German favourite Bastian Schweinsteiger to the Checkatrade.com Stadium as Reds lifted Europe's most sought after club trophy, the Champions League. (If Carlsberg did football management...)
One must-do in Cairns is to visit the world-famous Great Barrier Reef to see the fish that kit manufacturers back in the 1990s must have taken their inspiration from, with the obscure patterns and exotic colours.
Whilst on the snorkelling trip I threw my Reds shirt on top of the wetsuit to see if anyone recognised the top. Football has been the starter to most conversations on my travels so far, and was the case again as two Englishmen immediately noticed it and asked me if I was from Crawley.
Both were Leyton Orient supporters from East London and told me they'd be back home in time for the showdown between the two clubs at the Checkatrade.com Stadium last weekend - I bet they wished they had stayed after the result!
