'Crawley Town is a better team than Arsenal, West Ham or Chelsea' - Reds giveaway 300 season tickets to youngsters and keeper Blondy hopes they become permanent fans

The Youth Development Access Pass will see members of the Elite and Development Pathway at the Crawley Town Community Foundation be able to attend home league games for the season.

The club hope that this will mean the youngsters and their families become regulars at the games and increase attendance. And the event today saw Dannie Bulman and Ludwig Francilette give out the passes while goalkeeper Blondy Nna Noukeu was on hand to speak to the youngsters.

Marketing and sales assistant Alex Watts is leading the initiative and he said: "Being our 125th anniversary we are in a position now after Covid to move forward and try and increase attendances at the club and engage with the community and the Community Foundation.

"Our relationship with the Community Foundation has got better and better as the years have gone on.

"We have got everyone on board and today we have invited around 300 kids to come ad get a free Youth Development Access Pass for the season.

"It entitles them to all home league matches across the season and entitles their parents to two discounted tickets.

"We get a lot of children coming to the soccer schools and they are in Chelsea and United shorts so it would be nice to see them in Crawley Town gear.

"The aim is to let them know if they are part of the community they are part of the club as well.

"We have got a big game against Northampton on Saturday and it’s on the Bank Holiday weekend so hopefully we can get a few families in.

"All the kids are in the Elite and Development Pathway with the Community Foundation so when they meet the players that can see it could be them one day.

"We have already seen players from the Community Foundation on trial with the first team in pre-season so it’s letting them know at that young age there is a future here."

Keeper Blondy enjoyed meeting the youngsters and said it was a great initiative by the club and hopes to see them supporting teh Reds rather than the big Premier League teams.

He said: "I think it’s a good experience and its good for the players to be in touch with the first team guys.

"It’s important to have a big community and a big fan base. in terms of that I am really pleased to be here talking to them.

"Crawley is a better team than West Ham or Arsenal or Chelsea. SAs Crawley citizen’s we should be supporting Crawley all the time and be backing the team when the tough times come.

"If they can get in the stadium a few times and watch us play they will definitely get addicted because there is a really good vibe here. The fan base is incredible so they will enjoy it."