The last weekend of results saw Crawley Town demolished 5-1 at home to Oxford United, although Oxford are a team who shouldn’t be playing in League One and are certainties for promotion this season.

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This cannot hide the fact that Crawley’s season has been an absolute disaster, in fact most Crawley fans would say that the last three seasons have seen a fall from grace for the West Sussex club.

2010-11 season is where the Crawley revolution began, backed by shareholders Bruce Winfield and Susan Carter, Crawley started their ascent into the Football League, they started this climb when the then manager Steve Evans broke transfer record after transfer record, and brought in players like Matthew Tubbs and Sergio Torres for a combined fee of £170,000, the Red Devils then signed Richard Brodie for an astonishing £275,000, which still is a record signing for a Conference side.

The investment started to pay off as the club started to climb the league, with the pinnacle of these results coming in the F.A Cup where Crawley recorded an astonishing win over Championship club Derby County.

The club went on a remarkable run in the FA Cup before succumbing to a 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford against Manchester United, with Crawley hitting the bar in the last few minutes courtesy of a Richard Brodie header.

Tragedy struck as Bruce Winfield – one of the new shareholders – passed away. However, this only spurred the club on as only 19 days after Winfield’s death; Crawley secured promotion to the Football League with a 3-0 win over Tamworth.

Promotion to the Football League did not overawe Crawley, and this was partially due to the fact that they knew they had a squad that belonged near the top of League Two, and they duly carried on as they had started and topped League Two at the end of the year.

Tougher times followed, and after a big dip in form which saw Crawley win only two of their next 14 matches, along with key players being sold in the form of Tyrone Barnett and Matthew Tubbs, meant Crawley need to improve their form if they were to achieve their next goal of gaining promotion to League One.

On the 9th April, it was announced that manager Steve Evans was to leave the club and to take a new managerial post at Rotherham United.

Many would have seen Evans leaving the club as an unwelcome side-story to their journey to League One, however only one month later, Crawley Town achieved promotion to League One.

Following the promotion to League One, Crawley initially started well and finished 10th in their first season, sparking rumours that they could in fact be a contender for the following season, however, their form dipped for the following season and they finished a lowly 14th with Richie Barker at the helm, the 2014-15 season saw Crawley relegated back to the bottom tier of the Football league, finishing 22nd in the league, with Barker leaving his post.

Fast forward to the present day, and Crawley are sitting 17th in League Two with only 13 wins all season, the current manager Mark Yates having a win percentage of only 30%, and things are looking bleak for the West Sussex side.

The Crawley side of 2010-11 and 2011-12 are all but a memory for fans now, however it can also be seen as a warning to other sides around them that throwing money at a club, especially at the volume that the shareholders did, can bring short-term success, but the long-term success is never a guarantee.

Do you agree with this Crawley fans? Were the shareholders too greedy? Let us know in the comment box below!