Crawley Town general manager reveals club have prepared 'quite well' for week building up to Wembley

A record-breaking 8-1 aggregate win in the League Two play-off semi-finals against MK Dons mean Reds meet Crewe Alexandra at Wembley next Sunday (May 19, 1pm ko).

After leading 3-0 in the first leg, Crawley were always favourites to go through, but the message before the game was ‘the job is not done yet’. But behind the scenes preparations were going for a trip to Wembley – basically because they had to.

General manager Tom Allman will be doing a lot of organising and admin this week as Reds prepare for their first ever trip to the most famous stadium in the world.

He said: “It’s mid-May and we are still going. I can say now we have prepared quite well this week. We had one eye on things because of the quick turnaround. It was more tantalising for us because we were putting the plans together for what could be. A busy week ahead for us but what a week it will be.

"It’s history.”

SEE ALSO: Picture gallery of Crawley Town’s historic win at MK Dons | Recap of all the action of the play-off semi-final second leg | Crawley Town player ratings | Crawley Town at Wembley: When is the League Two play-off final? | Crawley Town have 'proved a lot of people wrong' says Scott Lindsey after historic win over MK Dons

And Allman, one of just five full-time employees behind the scenes at Crawley Town, says everyone involved in the club deserves this.

"Unbelievable, I know it’s a cliché but I don’t think there are any words. Who would have thought it? Firstly, coming here and putting on an unbelievable performance on the night, and someone has just said to me it’s the highest ever aggregate win in a play-off game. What can you say?

“It’s so surreal, everyone who has been involved in the club, in the present and in the past, the people who have helped us get to this stage, it’s just fantastic and it’s so deserved. Everyone works so hard for the club to have nights like this is amazing and really well deserved. People muck in across the board, it doesn’t matter what the job is. I am so pleased everyone’s hard work over the years has come to fruition.”

And he also praised the fans, Scott Lindsey, his staff and the players. “After every goal the players ran to celebrate in front of the fans, they have been so incredible,” he said. “The coaching staff have been fantastic to get a tune out of these players, the players have been fantastic.”