History

 

 

VillageLogo Crawley Down

The Haven Centre, Hophurst lane, Crawley Down, West Sussex

Founded 1993 ( Merger of three clubs), Colours, Red Shirts, Red Shorts, Red Socks

CrawleyDown.gif (993 bytes) 1983-95 Delving back into the history books to 1983, Crawley Down United could be found nestled in Division Six of the Mid Sussex League. By 1988 the Club had risen to Division One, winning three League Titles and finishing as runners up on two occasions.  After three seasons in Division One they won promotion to the Premier Division by finishing runners up to Lindfield.  Life in Intermediate football did not pose any great barriers to the Clubs progress.  Comfortable placings in the league’s top flight of sixth and third finally led to the Premier Division Championship being won by a massive margin of ten points from nearest challengers Wealden.  It also proved to be the culmination of the Clubs Mid Sussex League career as in 1993 the side merged with two other local sides and adopted the name Crawley Down Village F.C.
CrawleyDown.gif (993 bytes) 1995-2000 In 1995 the Club took the progressive step of joining the Sussex County League Division 3 and again the improvement in standard did not deter them.  In the first season they took second place in the League and found themselves making an even swifter move into Senior football.  They also reached the Final of the Intermediate Cup in that same season losing out to Shinewater in the final.  That defeat was immediately overturned in a thrilling last game edging out Shinewater on their own ground to achieve promotion just ten days later.  The first two seasons in Division two passed unspectacularly, yet provided much sought after consolidation. In the 98/99 season they were ready for the final push to the County’s summit.  After leading the pack early on, they fell away during the winter months, but the run-in was particularly strong and they rallied to finish in third place and a promotion spot in Division One.  Unfortunately whilst being in constant negotiations with MSDC the Club were unable to persuade them to allow the installation of floodlights in time and they had to settle back in Division two and try to do it all over again.  The following season 1999/00 after starting of in fine style they were clearly in a promotion spot at the turn of the year.  However another bad mid season spell caused them to fall out of the promotion places. The usual late rally brought the team back into contention and after thinking that they had got that final promotion place they were thwarted by a late decision to award Lancing three extra points after Mile Oak had fielded an illegible player.
CrawleyDown.gif (993 bytes) 2000-05 The next three seasons saw the team languishing in the lower half of the table with a change of Management in the latter half pulling them clear of the relegation Zone.  Further changes of Management brought better results in 2003/04 finishing in 11th position in Div 2. In 2004/05 an early run of 5 straight wins in the league and a good run in the cups got them off to a good start, but the middle of the season was poor and losses mainly by the odd goal put the team in the lower half of the table.  A further five straight wins in March gave them a respectable 10th finish by the end of the season.
CrawleyDown.gif (993 bytes) 2005/07 In 2005/06 the team had its best season since the year 2000 finishing in 5th place in the league with an excellent finish losing only one game in the last 9 League matches. In the Div 2 cup they reached the semi-final stage for the 2nd year running losing out to Sidlesham 1– 3 at Wick FC.  Last season the team struggled after having a bad start but turned in an outstanding finish to the season losing only 2 of the last 14 matches to stay out of the two relegation places. In the Cups the team did much better and reached the quarter-final stage of both the SCFA RUR Charity Cup and the SCFL Division Two Cup. The Reserves did very well improving on their 3rd place last season and winning the Reserve Section East to gain promotion to the Premier Division.
CrawleyDown.gif (993 bytes) 2007/08 A massive year for the Club as the culmination of 10 years hard work behind the scenes finally gave the Club the go ahead for upgrading its facilities at The Haven. Floodlights were in place during May 07 and the Hard Standing and Stands etc are scheduled to be completed before the start of the new season.