John Yems takes charge of his first Crawley Town game on Saturday when Reds head to Stevenage for an important Sky Bet League 2 fixture.
SCENE SETTER
Reds go into the game in poor form, with ten defeats in the last 14. Stevenage are 23rd and although they have only won two games in the league, and scored just 12 goals, they have only lost one of their last six and won 2-1 at Colchester on Tuesday to progress in the Leasing.com Trophy. They are 9th in the League 2 form table - Reds are 23rd.
INJURY NEWS
Although Reds have no fresh injury worries, they will be without Tom Dallison who is suspended for one game having accumulated five yellow cards.
VIEW FROM THE CAMP
John Yems: "We'll be ready. The last couple of days have been good on the training pitch. I've got to know the lads a bit more and Lee (Bradbury) did the session on Friday. I am looking forward to it and I hope our fans who travel get behind the boys. As I said, I think we have a squad capable of climbing the table but we're also mindful in our position that we don't want to get dragged towards the bottom."
PREVIOUS MEETINGS
Our 13th meeting in the EFL takes place against Stevenage on Saturday.
Crawley have won four of the previous 11, Stevenage five and the other three – guess what – were draws!
Crawley can boast two wins at the Lamex.
In December 2012 the League One encounter finished 2-1 to the Reds who won it through second-half goals from Hope Akpan and ex-Stevenage player Dannie Bulman, who was playing against one of his former clubs.
Then in February 2016 Matt Harrold was on target as Reds won 1-0 when Mark Yates was in charge.
Last season at the Lamex Reds lost 2-1 despite taking the lead through Dominic Poleon. On our previous visit, Ibrahim Meite’s goal secured a 1-1 draw. Reds also won the return fixture 1-0 thanks to a first-half goal by Enzio Boldewijn.
Stevenage won the most recent meeting at Crawley, 3-1 in the opening home game of last season despite a goal from Ollie Palmer.
James Collins scored with four minutes to go when we lost 2-1 at Stevenage in September 2016 – and our only other loss there came in 2013 when Stevenage won 2-0. Bulman is the only survivor in this Saturday's squad still at the club from that day six years ago.
IN CHARGE
Brett Huxtable will be in charge of John Yems' first game in charge on Saturday.
It will be the eighth time he's refereed us. His most recent Reds games were the 3-2 win over Leyton Orient in August and the 2-1 home victory over Grimsby last Match.
Previously, he was in charge of our chaotic 2-1 win at Yeovil on New Year's Day 2018, when play was stopped for 15 minutes due to drone activity above Huish Park. In the same season, he refereed the 3-0 win at Swindon.
He also been in charge for a 2-0 loss at Cambridge, a 1-0 win at home to Blackpool and 1-1 draw at Doncaster during the 2016/17 season.
This season he has been in charge of 16 games and shown one red and 59 yellow cards.
Craig Taylor and Oliver Jackson will be the assistants. Nick Cooper is the fourth official.
MATCH TICKETS AND HOW TO BUY
Our allocation is 250 seats in the South Stand plus four pairs of wheelchair / disabled tickets.
Prices: Adults £22; Concessions (60+, students, UB40 holders, ambulant disabled - carer FOC) £20; Under-18 £14; Under-12 £8.
Tickets can be purchased at the away end on the day but prices increase by £2 across all categories.
Advance sales from the club close at 3.30pm on Friday.
HOW THEY BET
Stevenage are 6/5 favourites. The draw is 9/4 and Reds are 21/10 to win John Yems' first game in charge. For more odds go to www.skybet.com Please gamble responsibly.
