The race for the Crawley Town job enters the final lap

After yesterday’s post which outlined the runners and riders, there has been a further development over the last couple of hours as what seems like a 2 horse race has now become a 1 horse race. Yesterday Mark Yates and James Beattie were both joint favourites at evens with Skybet but now Mark Yates’ price has shortened to 2/7 which to me would suggest an appointment is imminent. James Beattie has gone out to 3/1 while the other names in the race, Adams, Wilson and Worthington have gone further out.

To be honest the appointment of Mark Yates doesn’t fill me with confidence as he got the sack with Cheltenham which pretty much set the wheels in motion for their relegation out of League 2.  But he has experience at this level with getting to the play offs twice, once to the final.  Therefore he will probably feel he has a point to prove but it just feels like a bit of safe appointment and not a chance to break the mold. It will be interesting to see what Crawley’s intentions and aspirations are for next season, will there be a budget for promotion or is this just going to be a steady appointment to try and make sure they stay in League 2.

This is Crawley’s most important managerial appointment in years as next season is going to pretty much dictate the direction of the club over the next few years. Let’s hope that their decision is the right one.