Scunthorpe manager Paul Hirst is expecting another tight battle when he brings his side to The People's Pension Stadium in the first round of the Emirates FA Cup on Saturday.
The sides drew 2-2 at the Sands Venue Stadium in the league back in August when Bez Lubala, who later missed a penalty, and Nathan Ferguson were on target for Reds.
Hirst, speaking to Scunthorpe's official website, said: “I’m one of those who still firmly believes it’s a great competition, and maybe more so for the League One, Two and non-league teams because our aim first and foremost is to try and get into the third round and see if we can get a good draw – whether that’s a Premier League team coming here, or getting to travel to one of their grounds; that’s the aim.
“First and foremost we have try and get through to the second round. That will be no easy feat against Crawley, who started the season very well. They had a good run in the Carabao Cup and they’ve already seen the rewards a good cup run can bring.
“It’s another team from the same league but ultimately both teams will think they have a decent chance of getting through.
"The positives to it are we know the opposition, have played against them already and both teams had good spells in that game. Crawley started better and went ahead, we then got back into it, levelled and got ahead, missing the chance to put it to bed, and Crawley then finished strongly, having the equaliser and Rory saving a penalty. A draw was the fair result on the day.
“We’d have preferred a home game but it is what it is and we’ll go down there trying to get through. We’ll be treating it like a league game (in terms of team selection).”
Scunthorpe will be without Kgosi Ntlhe (groin), George Miller (quad strain) and Jordan Hallam (hamstring) and Jamie Ward (hamstring) but Matthew Lund (knee) is hopeful of being available.
