Crawley Town FC vs Leeds United
The third round of the FA Cup is one of the most popular dates in the English football calendar as the big guns from the top two leagues join the survivors from the qualifying stages and Rounds 1 and 2 proper.
Giant-killings from history will be all over the UK television previews, with stories of David vs Goliath triumphs and humiliations for the best teams in the country. Every Premier League side hopes it won’t be their turn this year and when Leeds United visit Crawley Town they will be determined to avoid the banana skin.
FA Cup: Crawley vs Leeds is one of those fixtures which sums up the romance of the oldest cup competition in the world. It’s sixth place in the fourth tier against 12th place in the Premier League.
The 6,000 capacity ground will be strangely quiet. Had it not been for the pandemic the People’s Pension Stadium would have been packed to the rafters with a constant roar from the hosts’ fans as they try to pull off a classic giant-killing act.
It’s not the easiest tie to predict but we can be pretty certain the Crawley vs Leeds highlights will be well worth a watch.
Talking Points
Crawley without Watters?
Manager John Yems doesn’t have a huge squad of players to pick from and he may well go with the same side which has won its last two games, though there is some doubt over whether star striker Max Watton will start with uncertainly around his future.
Following his summer transfer from Doncaster Rovers the striker has scored 13 goals in 15 appearances and he’s been watched by a host of clubs, including Championship side Swansea City, with Crawley slapping a £2m price-tag on the 21 year old forward’s head. Yems may be required to protect the Red Devils’ prize asset, but he has players elsewhere who know where the net is.
Skipper George Francomb scored the only goal of the game as Crawley beat Bolton Wanderers 1-0 to go sixth in the table. It was their first ever match against the Wanderers, a club relatively recently in the Premier League, and the win may have given them a taste for taking on the big guns.
The victory took them to within four points of an automatic promotion place after forward Tom Nicholls scored twice in Crawley’s previous game, a 2-1 victory over Forest Green.
Bielsa can shuffle his pack
Marcelo Bielsa’s side comes into the game on the back of a 3-0 defeat a the hands of Tottenham Hotspur and he’ll be planning to rest some of his key players with Premier League games coming thick and fast. Creative midfielder Pablo Hernandez was Leeds’ best player in their promotion season, but he has been part of a regular rotation after Bielsa strengthened his squad in the summer, and I expect to see him make a start in Crawley.
Leeds’ attacking prowess has been there for all to see but in defence there have been plenty of shaky moments against the best teams in the country. And one of the changes may see goalkeeper Kiko Casilla come in to stake his claim to replace current first choice Illan Meslier.
History
It’s the first meeting between these two teams which is little surprise as Crawley turned professional as recently as 2005 and first appeared in the football League in 2011. The Red Devils did spend three seasons in League 1, from 2012 to 2015, but Leeds United had already begun their climb from the lower reaches and were in the Championship.
Crawley are in good form, unbeaten in nine and winning five of those, including an FA Cup victory over derby rivals AFC Wimbledon.
The Red Devils have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last five games at home, but have had no trouble at the other end of the pitch, scoring 19 times in their last nine home games.
Leeds have been picking up points regularly in the Premier League, with four wins and a draw from the last 11 games, and they tend to be in high scoring matches away from Elland Road, seeing 20 goals in their last four away fixtures.
Betting Tip
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Crawley Town FC vs Leeds United | Over 2.75 @ 1.83 |
| January 10, 21:30 (GMT+8) |
There is no surprise in store when you look at the Crawley vs Leeds betting odds with Crawley at 6.95 to take a Premier League scalp or 4.74 to take the tie to a replay.
Leeds are at 1.35 to win here at SBOTOP, and so they should. But I’m looking for some value and backing a high scoring game. For a score-line, how about 1-3 at 8.68, or a very long shot of 2-4 at 48.84?
A SHORT EXPLANATION ON HOW OUR ( ) BETS ARE WORTH: |
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| = €20 (Highly confident) |
 = €10 (CONFIDENT) |
= €5 (SOMEWHAT CONFIDENT) |
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Disclaimer: Odds are correct at time of publish.
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