After disappointment on home turf last weekend, Crawley have the chance to put things right on the road as we travel to Northampton Town on Saturday.
SCENE SETTER
The Reds have improved on the road recently, picking up four points on their travels from their last two matches, but will have to improve on their last result after a 3-0 home defeat to Oldham Athletic. Northampton sit just one place and one point above Gabriele Cioffi's men after a 1-1 draw at Lincoln City in their previous outing.
FORM GUIDE
Both sides have similar records in their last five matches, with the Reds picking up four points from their last five matches and the Cobblers picking up five. Northampton are winless at home in their last two, which includes a 4-0 defeat by Colchester United. However, they did pick up and impressive win on the road at Tranmere Rovers ten days ago. Prior to the 3-0 defeat to Oldham, Crawley beat Swindon 1-0 and drew 1-1 with Bury on the road.
THE HISTORY
Having spent a majority of our Football League era either a league above or below Northampton, we have met Saturday's opponents just five times in recent years.
We also met in 1991, in what was at the time the Reds’ best ever run in the FA Cup when we beat the Cobblers – then of the old third division – 4-2 at the old Town Mead ground in the first round. We went on to lose 5-0 in third round to Brighton.
Our first meeting since 1991 came in a televised fixture in 2011, as the Reds made their first ever trip to Sixfields in our debut Football League season. Matt Tubbs scored the only goal live on Sky Sports, as the Reds recorded a 1-0 win.
Our home game with the Cobblers in just before Christmas was a lively affair. Northampton scored the only goal of the game from a disputed penalty in the second half before Ollie Palmer was sent off shortly afterwards and the Cobblers saw the game out for a 1-0 victory.
TEAM NEWS
Long term absentee Jimmy Smith is still unavailable for the Reds and it is uncertain whether he will feature again this season - as stated by Gabriele Cioffi at the Fan's Forum on Monday night. New signing Ibrahim Meite still isn't ready to make his debut following an injury sustained in his first training session. For the hosts, Sam Foley and Marvin Sordell are likely to remain sidelined with back and ligament injuries respectively.
THE MATCH OFFICIALS
Essex official Nick Kinseley will take charge of Saturday's clash.
It will be the 14th time Mr Kinseley has officiated a Reds fixture, eight of which have take place during our time in the Football League. He has already refereed us once this season - the 3-2 home defeat to Carlisle United in December.
Last season he was in charge of our 2-0 home win over Barnet in January, as well as 2-0 defeat to Chesterfield in November and a 2-0 defeat to Charlton in the Checkatrade Trophy in August. He was also the man in the middle of our 1-0 win over Wycombe Wanderers on the opening day of the 2016/17 season.
He will be assisted by Mark Griffiths and Ravel Cheosiaua. The fourth official is Christopher Husband.
COVERAGE
The game will be available for UK subscribers of iFollow from 2.55pm with live commentary from BBC Sussex & Surrey Sport's Gary Smith.
You must be a subscriber to listen (UK) to this service. You can subscribe here. Overseas users can of course watch the action live.
There will also be coverage across our social media channels throughout the afternoon. @crawleytown on Twitter, Crawley Town FC on Facebook and crawley_town_fc on Instagram.
