Crawley

Ground: Broadfield Stadium

Visits: 1

Date: 27th September 2014

Match: Crawley - Yeovil 2-0 (League 1)

Attendance: 2 351

In recent years I have done a weekend trip to Germany i late September/early October. This time around I couldn´t find two matches being played Saturday and Sunday at new grounds (in the top two divisions) AND being able to fly home on Sunday evening. Instead I looked elsewhere and decided to do a day trip to England. Easyjet fly from Copenhagen to London Gatwick several times on Saturdays but above all they have a flight back at 19.15. Knowing Crawley Town´s Broadfield Stadium is very close to Gatwick I looked at Crawley´s fixtures. Taking into account flight prices as well as opponents I decided the last Saturday of September was to be the day for my trip. My alarm buzzed at 06.00 and 30 minutes later I was on my way to Copenhagen airport. Having checked-in as well as printed my boarding card at home I had an easy ride at the airport. It felt a bit strange to be at the airport with only a small rucksack though. Anyway, at 10.15 my flight left Copenhagen and two hours later, on time, I was at Gatwick. It took a while to navigate out of the terminal building but I eventually found the local bus station. There are actually two bus routes (10 & 20) going directly to Broadfield Stadium from Gatwick airport. The journey took around 25 minutes and shortly after noon I was outside the ground. The weather was quite nice with around 18 degrees. After a few exterior pictures I bought a ticket for the Bruce Winfield Stand, the home end. I was by now getting a bit hungry and the lack of restaurants in the area meant I went to the Redz bar instead. The Redz bar is a bar inside Broadfield Stadium and as I sat down with my drink and sausage babs it was kick-off at Anfield Road. The Liverpool derby was shown live from 12.45 and the bar quickly filled up with Crawley and Yeovil supporters who in a friendly matter mixed with each other.

The turnstiles at Broadfield Stadium opened an hour before kick-off as as usual I went inside as soon as possible. Broadfield Stadium was opened in 1997 and nowadays has a capacity of around 6 000. I have to say the ground looks quite good with all stands being covered and both ends being terracing. The West (main) stand is elevated and has around 1 200 seats. The newest addition is the East Stand which looks like a covered golf stand. Unfortunately there are plenty of supporting pillars in this stand. For this match the terrace on the north side of the ground was closed, I guess it is only open when they away team bring 1000+ fans. Yeovil brought a decent away following (375) to Crawley this afternoon and in the first half they could witness their team being by far the better team on the pitch. No goals though, 0-0 at half-time, but I expected Yeovil to score a few goals in the second half. Crawley came out looking like a new team in the second half and suddenly the momentum had changed. In three minutes (57 to 59) Crawley scored two goals. Both goals were headed by their tall striker Marvin Elliott. Yeovil never recovered and the match finished 2-0 to Crawley. In total 2 351 were at Broadfield Stadium this afternoon and most of them went back home in a good mood. I was in a good mood too. Everything went smoothly on this day trip. I was at Gatwick 17.20, at 19.15 my flight left the airport and by 23.50 I was back home in Kristianstad. It is not every day you make a day trip abroad but now I have tried it I might do it again!

match