Opposition profile: Crawley Town

CURRENT POSITION

John Yems' side enter this weekend sitting 14th in League Two, following a start to the season in which they have won five, drawn two and lost six.

The most recent victory came at Rochdale on October 9th, when they won 1-0 through a goal from Kwesi Appiah. Previous successes this season have been against Bradford at home (2-1), Colchester away (1-0), Carlisle at home (2-1) and Salford at home (2-1).

LAST TIME OUT

Second-half goals from Matt Jay, Nigel Atangana and Sam Nombe gave Exeter a 3-1 victory at 10-man Crawley on Tuesday night.

The hosts, who had led through Kwesi Appiah's header, had striker Ashley Nadesan dismissed for two bookable offences before half-time as they went down to back-to-back defeats.



THE MANAGER

John Yems was appointed as Manager on a contract initially until the end of the 2019/20 season in December 2019.

This is his second spell in charge of the Reds. Alongside Ben Judge and Dave Woozley, he led Reds to Conference safety on the last day of the 2006-07 season after they had started the campaign with a ten-point deduction.

John was assistant to Exeter manager Paul Tisdale for 18 months from 2009 and then spent six years with AFC Bournemouth and played an important part in the Cherries’ rise from League One to the Premier League in his role as Football Operations Manager. He was part of Eddie Howe’s management team and had responsibility for coaching and recruitment.

He has also worked at Fulham, Crystal Palace, Millwall, Torquay and Gillingham and is a UEFA A License coach.

TOP SCORER

Kwesi Appiah is their top marksman with four goals to his name so far. One of the players to join Crawley in the summer transfer window, Appiah made the switch to The People’s Pension Stadium from Indian Super League side NorthEast United.

He started his career at Ebbsfleet, before moving onto Peterborough. He failed to break into the Posh’s first-team, spending time away on loan. Permanent spells at Brackley, Thurrock and Margate followed, before a four-and-a-half-year long period at Crystal Palace.

Appiah made six league appearances for Palace, spending the majority of his time out on loan at the likes of Cambridge, Reading and Norwegian side Viking. He spent three years at AFC Wimbledon, before his move to India.

THE EVER-PRESENTS

Crawley have three players who have started all 13 league games, and these are goalkeeper Glenn Morris and midfielders Jack Powell and Jake Hessenthaler.

THE SQUAD