Classy Crawley climb into League One

Liam Kelly and Danilo Orsi star as Scott Lindsey's Town win promotion against Crewe at Wembley

Huw Davies at Wembley

On February 10th, Crewe Alexandra beat Crawley Town 1-0 to put themselves 3rd, among the automatic promotion places and half a division ahead of their 15th-placed opponents. Their play-off buddies, Doncaster, were 20th. It was a different time.

The confidence and panache with which Crawley have played since that day has been remarkable to witness. At that point in February, only five teams in League Two had lost more games than Scott Lindsey’s outfit. Only one team had won more than Crewe. The pair’s convergence over time was down to the Railwaymen’s injury crisis as well as Crawley’s improvement, and they grew ever closer until the two teams finished one place and one point apart in the table. Crewe 6th. Crawley 7th, and never once ahead of Alex.

Beating Crewe at Wembley, then, represents one of the most perfectly-timed runs in footballing history.

If Crawley could indeed be said to have come up on the rail and pipped Crewe in a photo finish, then it’s only fitting that Liam Kelly was their jockey. The pint-sized midfielder, who left Rochdale last summer following their relegation to non-league, made the Wembley turf his own. Most successful passes in the game? Naturally. Most chances created? Just the five, with nobody else making even three. Most shots as well? Oh, go on then. When he scored late on to put a bow on his team’s promotion, it was not far off being the fulfilling of a 90-minute prophesy.