Crawley Town have named Ben Gladwin as interim head coach after Scott Lindsey left the club to join MK Dons.

Gladwin, 32, joined the Reds as first-team coach this summer and will be in the dugout for Saturday's League One match against Bolton Wanderers at Broadfield Stadium.

The former midfielder retired from his playing career at Crawley this year, having made 190 professional appearances for clubs including QPR and Swindon Town.

Crawley said the search for Lindsey's permanent successor had begun and the club will "confidently recruit a new leader who will actively embrace a data-driven approach and partner with the club's ownership and management to push the club forward".

The club sit 18th in League One with seven points from their opening six games under Lindsey.

Lindsey joined Crawley in January 2023 and led the Sussex club to promotion to the third tier via a League Two play-off final victory over Crewe Alexandra at Wembley last season, having dismantled MK Dons 8-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals.

Two of Lindsey's promotion-winning players, Lawrence Maguire and Liam Kelly, moved to Dons in the summer.

MK Dons have appointed Crawley Town boss Scott Lindsey as their new head coach.

The 52-year-old drops down a division to replace Mike Williamson, who left Stadium MK last week to take over at Carlisle United.

Lindsey led Crawley to promotion from the fourth tier last season, crushing MK Dons 8-1 on aggregate before a 2-0 win over Crewe Alexandra at Wembley.

"I think it's clear to everyone just how much potential there is at MK Dons, and I'm thrilled to be joining to help achieve it," he told the Dons website.

"I can't wait to get stuck in with the players, and look forward to meeting the supporters as soon as possible."

First-team coaches Jamie Day and Carl Laraman, and goalkeeping coach Steve Hale, have also made the move from Crawley.

Lindsey was in charge of the West Sussex club for 20 months, having left previous club Swindon Town to join them in January 2023.

Crawley are 18th in League One, while the Dons are one place lower in League Two following Saturday's 1-1 draw at home to Doncaster Rovers, when long-serving defender Dean Lewington was in caretaker charge.

Lindsey is their fifth boss since Russell Martin left to take over at Swansea City in the summer of 2021.

And he is the first to be appointed since owner Pete Winkelman sold the club to a Kuwait-based consortium, headed by businessman and entrepreneur Fahad Al Ghanim.

The new chairman said: "It's clear to everyone who's followed the EFL over the last few years just how good a coach Scott Lindsey is.

"Having met with him, I was encouraged to hear how he thinks we can improve, and ultimately convinced by his vision for the team."

Number one target
Scott Lindsey
Image source,Rex Features
Image caption,
Scott Lindsey with the League Two play-off trophy following Crawley's promotion

MK Dons climbed as high as the Championship in the 2015-16 season but Lindsey's first task will be to try and restore the League One status they lost via relegation in 2023.

He was in charge at Crawley for 87 games, the last one a 2-1 defeat at league leaders Wrexham on Saturday.

Sporting director Liam Sweeting was in charge of finding a replacement for Wiliamson and he said: "I don't think it's much of a secret to say Scott was our number one target from day one, so I'm absolutely delighted that he's agreed to join the club at such an exciting time.

"Scott's footballing record in recent seasons is phenomenal, proving time and again that he can maximise what's in front of him and develop a brilliant coaching environment."

The length of the contract agreed with Lindsey, who also achieved promotion in 2017 when he was assistant manager at Forest Green Rovers, has not been disclosed by the club.

Meanwhile, Crawley chairman Preston Johnson said: "Scott was such a big part of the success we had in the last year or so. We wanted Scott to stay with us, but ultimately he made the decision to leave, which we respect."

They plan to utilise a "data driven approach" to find his successor.

Well, how ironic - the man who masterminded the demolition of the Dons in last season’s play-offs is now their manager.

Scott Lindsey’s Crawley side went on to win at Wembley, but now he’s dropping back down to League Two at Stadium MK following the departure of Mike Williamson.

And two of his players from Crawley, Lawrence Maguire and Liam Kelly, are already there.

The new Kuwaiti owners have acted swiftly to replace Williamson, and with a man who knows the division rather than a higher-profile name.

THE MATCH

SATURDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER KO 12:30PM

v

LAST MATCH



Despite putting in a decent performance, we went down to Luton with a little help from the referee. We were the better team in the first half with Kaminski making a couple of saves from Smith and Windass, while Bannan fired one over the bar. Beadle did save from McGuiness. Onto the 2nd half and we deservedly took the lead when Bazza volleyed past Kaminski. We could have had a penalty, but the EFL wont allow that. The game changed when Bernard was judge to have handled on the line and was sent off and the penalty put in by Morris. Luton then won it with a few minutes left, Morris again, though there could have been handball by Morris

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Next up and back to Hillsborough to take on WBA. The Baggies have mad an excellent start to the season, winning 5 and drawing one in the league and sit proudly at the top of the Championship, although 4 of there wins have come against teams currently in the bottom 11, so how good they are is a question mark. If they can keep there start going they should finish somewhere in the top 6. They are managed by Carlos Corberan, who took over in October 2022 and has a 48% winning percentage. There leading scorer is Maja, who has 6 goals so far this season.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 54
WBA 38
DRAWS 29

CURRENT FORM

OWLS L W D L L L                                                            

WBA W W W W D W                                        

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

BEN TONER
Jonathan Hunt & Greg Read
Fourth Official: Lewis Smith

THE TEAM

Beadle
Palmer Bernard Iorfa Johnson
Bannan Charles
Musaba Ingelsson Gassama
Ugbo

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-1 Ugbo

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

26

ATTENDANCE

28112

BML LEAGUE

Wereham 7
Maddix 6
Imre 4
Washington 4
SCO 2

BMPL

Southey 10
Owlkev 4
Stateside 1
Pei 1

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Chelsea v Brighton
Oxford v Burnley
Barnsley v Stockport
Doncaster v Chesterfield
Forest Green v Hartlepool

HAHAH

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

More than 100,000 litres of water has been pumped out of AFC Wimbledon's flooded Plough Lane home after the "entire stadium" was left under water, says the club's managing director.

The pitch at the Cherry Red Records Stadium has suffered "significant damage" after the nearby River Wandle broke its banks on Sunday night, James Woodroof told BBC Radio London.

Tuesday's Carabao Cup third-round match against Newcastle United has been postponed and will instead be played at the Premier League club's St James's Park ground on 1 October.

The Dons' League Two home game against Crewe Alexandra, originally scheduled for that day, has in turn been postponed, while the club are hoping to stage Saturday's league game against Accrington Stanley at another venue in south London, Woodroof said.

The club's next home game after that is against Carlisle United on Saturday, 12 October and he said it is their "real intention to fulfil that fixture".

"I woke up to images from my stadium team. I thought it was AI [artificial intelligence]," he said.

"The entire stadium, the concourse and ground floor, was under water. It was horrendous. The pitch has significant damage.

"We filled four tankers, which house 27,000 litres each – over 100,000 litres."

With a running tap estimated to use nine litres a minute, 100,000 litres is the equivalent of a tap being left on continuously for around a week.

Listen: 'The entire stadium was underwater'
Attribution

Parts of central and southern England experienced more than a month's worth of rain on Sunday and Monday morning.

It is the first time the River Wandle has broken its banks since the 1960s, Woodroof said.

Damage to the pitch shows several areas of exposed sand close to one of the corner flags.

Woodroof said he expected diggers to be brought into the stadium on Wednesday to begin excavating the damaged pitch.

"We are deep in investigation mode into what has happened here. Essentially it's a natural disaster," he said.

"The River Wandle was full. There was too much water and nowhere for it to go, and the pressure has been so enormous that this area of the pitch has been the unfortunate victim.

"We really need to understand what the damage has been beneath that surface."

Wimbledon have made a strong start to the season and sit fifth in League Two, with 13 points from their first six matches.

They are undefeated in five home games in all competitions.

A JustGiving page, external has been set up by Wombles fan Graham Stacey to raise funds to help Wimbledon repair the damage, with a target of £100,000.

Their cup opponents Newcastle are among those to help, pledging £15,000.

"We are really thankful for all the support," Woodroof added.

"It typifies the spirit of this football club, this relentless resilience and community spirit is extraordinary.

"Time after time this football club has defied naysayers. We have another obstacle in our path and I've no doubt we'll be back and I'm hopeful it's sooner rather than later."

Woodroof later confirmed to BBC Radio 5 Live that the club has insurance for the stadium and pitch, and were working closely with their insurers.

He also urged Magpies fans to buy tickets for the rearranged tie, adding: "There’s a revenue share, so we get 45% of the gate. If you live in Newcastle please come down - by supporting your team you are supporting us."

He said switching Saturday's League Two game to Accrington was "sadly not possible" and added: "We are speaking to local clubs about whether they can lend us their ground for the day.

"We are working with the EFL and Accrington on a solution, but we don’t have one yet."

Friday 27th September

Tranmere 1-1 Salford City

Saturday 28th September

Harrogate 2-1 Bradford City
Walsall 0-2 Colchester
Bromley 1-1 MK Dons
Carlisle 1-2 Grimsby
Cheltenham 1-2 Fleetwood
Doncaster 2-2 Chesterfield
Gillingham 1-1 Barrow
Morecambe 0-5 Notts County
Newport 2-1 Crewe
Port Vale 2-0 Swindon
Wimbledon 1-2 Accrington (If it's on)


League Table After Match day 7

Devon - 170
Dancing - 147
Lord Snoots - 143
Maclad - 124
Spireitematt - 115
St Charles - 111
SaltergateBorn - 106
Amelia - 104

Group A

Themaclad 12
Minizin 6
A.A.A. 5
Amelia 5
Twerton 1
Zinman 1

Lowest score of the season so far with just 30 points scored. Another whitewash on the Gamball didn’t help. But this didn’t stop Themaclad continuing his fine form this season and he took advantage of the other poor scores by grabbing 12 points!! A CS on the Bonus, backed up with 3 CRs certainly helped his cause. Minizin was 2nd with 6 points, he at least managed a CR on the Bonus. AAA and Amelia both ended with 5 points each, AAA was the only other player to managed a CS but missed on his bonus, Amelia got a CR on the Bonus.

Bottom in joint 5th this week is Twerrton and Zinman. Both of them managed to pick up the Scoreball point but not much else!!

67 Themaclad
48 Twerton
40 Minizin
37 A.A.A.
30 Amelia
29 Zinman

Themaclad has now extended his lead to a healthy 19 points and has more than double the points of Amelia and Zinman, can he keep this going?? Amelia was actually the only positive mover this week, pushing Zin back down to the wooden spoon spot!!

A few stats from the results so far. Themaclad has a nice lead and its not difficult to see why - he has scored the most CSs, most points on each of the three balls and is one of only 2 players to be positive on the ball playing points overall!!!

Cheers
SCO

Group B

Lady Jane 20
Snooty 15
Stairs 10
Derby 7
BaggieOne 6
SCO 5
BBB 3

Although the total points this week was marginally below average, the spread of individual scores was large with a difference of 17 points separating top from bottom. We did see a couple of negative scoreball points and 2 games, Fulham/Newcastle and Palace/Man U provided a toal of minus 1 point between them.

Lady Jane hasn't yet been outside the top 3 in any week so far and this week she set her highest single week score, being the first of this group to achieve th 20 point mark. Nailing her gamball for the second time this season (now 4 out of 5 positive gamball weeks) helped her on her way together with 2 other correct scores from 6 correct results. Thankfully for the rest of the group she missed out on her bonus! Snooty had his best week so far to take 2nd place - 5 correct results for him including 2 corrext scores including his bonus. Stairs is the other player making double figures, largely down to a maximum bonus.

Derby was the only other player to score from the gamball but he was the only player not to get a correct score, keeping him in mid-table just a point ahead of BaggieOne who only scored on 2 games though one was his bonus.

SCO's slow start continues scoring just 5 points but he's kept off the bottom by BBB. They were both held back by their balls - minuses on all 3 thanks to Palace's nil nil draw.

74 Lady Jane
53 Derby
50 Stairs
48 Snooty
45 BBB
44 BaggieOne
37 SCO

Lady Jane is fast disappearing out of sight at the top of the table. Her lead now stretches to 21 points over the chasing (?) pack. She also has double the total of SCO languishing at the foot of the table.

Some early season balls analysis highlights Lady Jane's great start. She has amassed 30 points from her balls, just ahead of Derby on 27. In contrast SCO has minus 3 points from his balls!

Zin

Gamball:
Derby - Norwich

Brentford - West Ham
Everton - Crystal Palace
Nottingham Forest - Fulham
Sheff W - WBA
Oxford - Burnley
Portsmouth - Sheff Utd
Watford - Sunderland
Reading - Huddersfield
Swansea - Bristol City