Mark Dunford, head of sport for Sussex World and editor of the Crawley Observer is joined by Crawley Town legend Matt Tubbs.
Matt scored 66 goals in 96 games for the Reds and was part of Steve Evans’ side that went from Non League to League One and also played at Old Trafford in the fifth round of the FA Cup in 2011.
Mark talks to Matt Crawley Town's achievement this season, what it was like to play at Old Trafford and advice he has for the players preparing for Wembley
Matt scored 66 goals in 96 games for the Reds and was part of Steve Evans’ side that went from Non League to League One and also played at Old Trafford in the fifth round of the FA Cup in 2011.
Mark talks to Matt Crawley Town's achievement this season, what it was like to play at Old Trafford and advice he has for the players preparing for Wembley
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00:00 Hi, I'm Mark Dunford, head of sport for Sussex World and editor of the Crawley Observer.
00:05 Today I'm delighted to be joined by Crawley Town legend Matt Tubbs. Matt scored 66 goals
00:11 in 96 games for the Reds and was part of Steve Evans' side that went from non-league to
00:14 League One and also played at Old Trafford in the fifth round of the FA Cup in 2011.
00:19 Matt, thank you so much for joining us. How are you doing?
00:23 Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm really good, thank you. Yeah, really good. Yeah,
00:29 football season's, you know, closing now, so it's trying to, you know, figure out what
00:33 golf course I'm going to be on throughout the summer. So, yeah, it's been a good season
00:37 kind of all round, like watching, you know, so many teams do so well.
00:41 Yeah, let's start with what you're up to these days. Some Crawley fans might not know what
00:45 you do these days.
00:46 Yeah, so I'm a sport and exercise science lecturer at Brocklinhurst College, 16 to 19
00:52 year olds down in the New Forest. So, yeah, it's something I never really thought I'd
00:59 get into. But at the back end of my career, I kind of equipped myself with qualifications
01:04 and, you know, not knowing what I was going to go into and the opportunity to come up
01:08 to be a teacher. And I, you know, I took it and now I'm in my fifth year of teaching and,
01:12 you know, again, really, really enjoying it.
01:14 Yeah, I just want to point out now that I once played for St Vincent College and we
01:18 beat Brocklinhurst 8-2 and I scored two goals, but I don't want to go on about that.
01:22 Obviously, you've probably been keeping a close eye on how Crawley are doing. How
01:30 impressed have you been with them this season?
01:32 Yeah, yeah, really good. Yeah, they had a little bit of a slow start in the first couple
01:37 of games. But yeah, you know, they've had a remarkable season, especially the back end
01:40 of the season. And you can kind of see that with the results and the team spirit and the
01:45 camaraderie, the togetherness that's there at the minute is, you know, that goes so far.
01:49 And, you know, that's ultimately, as well as having some really good players, has got
01:53 them over the line. You know, we've seen the MK game, how tight the group is. And, you
02:00 know, it's credit to the management and the staff and the players to create that culture
02:03 and get them to where they've got to now.
02:05 Yeah, I mean, when we consider what happened last year when the new owners came in, it
02:10 was quite a tumultuous year, to say the least, kind of thing. And when they, over the summer,
02:16 they brought in a load of, like we said, non-league, what seemed to be non-league players.
02:19 Did you ever think we'd be talking about Crawley going to Wembley this season?
02:23 No, no, definitely not. No, I don't think anyone did. Hence why they were, you know,
02:28 tipped to be one of the teams to get relegated out of the division. So, you know, and again,
02:32 that's credit to the staff and the managers and the players to how far they've come in
02:38 a really short space of time. Because it does take time for teams to gel and get that team
02:43 spirit together. But, you know, what Scott Lindsay and Jamie Day and the staff have done
02:47 there is, you know, unbelievable. And like you said, now they're getting their rewards
02:51 with a great day out at Wembley.
02:53 Yeah, it's a great playing style Scott Lindsay has implemented. I imagine when Crawley first
03:01 got to League Two, when you were playing, there weren't many teams playing this kind
03:05 of football in League Two. It's not sort of known for League Two sort of playing style, is it?
03:09 No, it's not known. I think back then, you know, 10, 11, 12 years ago, it was very more direct
03:15 and especially the way Steve Evans set up his teams. He was predominantly a direct manager
03:20 and direct coach and he built a team that could work around that philosophy. And in that season
03:26 where we got promoted from League Two to League One, that worked for the team. And obviously what
03:31 Scott Lindsay is doing now with his style of play, he's bringing players that are technically
03:36 very, very good footballers and can move the ball well and do what he wants to do. And like I said,
03:42 you've seen him, you know, get into that last playoff spot. And, you know, like I said,
03:46 they've got an amazing day out coming up this weekend and I'm sure they're going to plan well
03:50 and, you know, play the football that they want to play, you know, on their big day.
03:53 Yeah. And Brockinghurst College, do they play football like that?
03:59 This season, we've been victims of the weather this season. It's been,
04:02 just get any kind of consistency whatsoever. As you can imagine on college pitches is,
04:07 you know, a little bit in the rain and it gets cooled off. So we haven't had really much chance.
04:13 But, you know, for me and my style, I've been quite lucky to play under Steve Evans,
04:17 who's been very successful and Eddie Howe, who's been very successful. Two polar opposite managers,
04:23 one wants to play football, one wants to go long. So I've been playing a little bit of the two.
04:28 Yeah, absolutely. Being a striker, I imagine you've been keeping tabs on Danilo Orsi,
04:33 who has now scored more goals in a league season for Crawley than anyone else. Sorry to bring that
04:37 up. I think you were, how many did you score in your first season? Was that 18, I think, possibly?
04:41 Yeah, I think, yeah, I was 18 league goals up until January and then I obviously left
04:48 at the end of January. So, yeah, he's been doing amazing. You know, he's a great finisher.
04:58 You've seen that with the goals that he scored and the clips that you see of him. He's very much
05:02 kind of in the box, right place, right time, you know, touch and finish really quick. And also,
05:07 what he's got to gain is he holds the ball quite well as well in the games that I've seen. So,
05:11 you know, he's kind of an all-round striker, especially when Scott Lindsay goes one up front,
05:18 he's kind of leads that line really, really well.
05:20 Yeah. Now you obviously part of the team, as we've already mentioned, that went to Old Trafford,
05:25 arguably Crawley's biggest game in their history before this weekend. What can you remember about
05:30 that experience and in particular the build up to it? What players go through in a week like this
05:35 leading up to it? Yeah, I think it's just the euphoria of it all. You obviously get,
05:40 the week leading up to it, it's one of the best weeks. Yeah, it's almost better than the day
05:45 because there's so much, like I said, euphoria and excitement around the town, the players.
05:49 I bet every single one of those players, I bet you won't see one of them in the medical room
05:53 this week. They'll all be out, they'll have a great week's training, knowing the fact that
05:59 one, they're going to go to Wembley and have a great day out, but also two, they've got the
06:03 chance to get promoted to League One, which is, you know, and I think Scott Lindsay said in a
06:07 video after MK Don's, that every doubt has given them the fuel to go out and win. And, you know,
06:14 Crewe only finished one point above them in the league this season. So, it's not as if there's
06:18 a big golfing difference between the two. So, obviously Crewe have got to come down to London,
06:23 Crawley are a London base. So, you know, hopefully, just it'd be a really good game. But
06:28 like I said, hopefully seeing Crawley lift the trophy.
06:31 Absolutely. And this week, the Crawley players, like we said, are building up to Wembley. The
06:37 majority of them, for the first time, I think there's only maybe one or two have actually
06:40 played at Wembley. What advice would you give to someone who has been through,
06:45 someone who has been through a similar going into a huge game?
06:48 Just say for the moment, and people say this quite a lot, it goes within a blink of an eye and
06:56 and it does. And, you know, I'm 12, 13 years past Old Trafford now. And, you know, I still
07:03 hold it so close to me and I still think about it all the time. And, you know, now I teach students
07:08 and when they kind of get wind that I used to play football, they see in the class,
07:12 they're watching like YouTube clips of the Man United game still. And that's 12, 13 years past
07:18 when we did. So, you know, it's an amazing day out. And like I said, we went to Old Trafford,
07:24 they're going to Wembley. It's just taking every single minute, take as many photos as you can.
07:29 They're with their, you know, they're with their good friends on the football pitch.
07:32 They're going to go to battle against a good team. And they're all going to fight for each
07:36 other, I'm sure. And you've seen that in the course of the season. They've been, you know,
07:40 a tight knit, especially the back end of the season. And, you know, to do it with the guys
07:44 that you see pretty much every day is, you know, it's something to savour.
07:48 Yeah. I asked you this when Crawley played Bournemouth in the FA Cup in the fourth round
07:54 in 2021 after they beat Leeds 3-0. But how do you think your Crawley side under Steve Evans,
08:00 who played at Old Trafford, would get against this Scott Lindsay current side?
08:03 Two hugely different styles.
08:07 Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You hit the nail on the head there. Two totally different styles. Yeah,
08:12 really, really tough one. Because obviously, like you said, the two different styles could
08:16 potentially counteract each other. One's very direct and one wants to play really nice football.
08:21 But that's not to say under Steve Evans we didn't play nice football. Steve Evans was just
08:25 get it forward quick and then play really good football in the opponent's half. So,
08:29 yeah, I mean, to call, yeah, to call who's going to win is probably too tough. And I'll probably
08:35 have to sit on the fence on it, I think. But yeah, it's too, yeah, it's too tough. I mean,
08:40 it's too many. You look at it in that season, the Crawley talent Steve Evans got promoted after
08:45 winning, coming third. This Crawley team are finishing, you know, seventh and getting in
08:50 the playoffs with the run they've had. But we had experienced players that played the level,
08:55 really bringing young, fresh players up. So, yeah, it's probably too hard to tell, I'd imagine.
09:02 I imagine hat-tricks were Orsi and Tubbs that day if they were playing each other.
09:06 Yeah, who'd get the match ball, though? That's the question.
09:09 Yeah, absolutely. And the big question, can Crawley beat Crewe this weekend? And what is
09:16 your score prediction? Yeah, I think they can. I think they definitely can. Like I said,
09:22 you know, an amazing... And I think even if you cast your mind back to Old Trafford,
09:26 absolutely no one gave us a hope in hell that day. And, you know, we only just narrowly lost
09:30 1-0 with Brodie hitting the bar in the last minute as well. So, yeah, it's a one-off game.
09:36 And, you know, I'd back Crawley. I mean, you look at the last two games, Crewe have won,
09:42 would they have a little bit of this season, like a bit of a psychological bit about it,
09:47 like because they've beaten Crawley twice already this season. But I think on a day like
09:51 that, when the final is going to be, it's just, you know, whoever goes out there and whoever
09:55 works harder, whoever moves the ball faster is going to end up winning the game. But yeah, I'd
10:00 back Crawley all day. I'm going to go 2-1 Crawley. That's my prediction. Excellent. Good stuff. Well,
10:06 let's hope that comes to fruition. So, well, thank you so much for joining us, Matt. It's
10:10 been great talking to you. You can see our special season eight supplement celebrating Crawley getting
10:15 to Wembley in this week's Crawley Observer. And you can see all the build up online at
10:19 sussexworld.co.uk. Thanks again, Matt. And hopefully speak to you soon.
10:24 Yep, thanks for having me. Thank you.