Every fortnight we cover the best and worst football songs from every club in the UK from our book ‘The Sound Of Football: Every Club, Every Song’. You can buy it here

Crawley Town

Nickname: The Red Devils

Ground: Broadfield Stadium

Stadium Capacity: 5,973

Song: A Message To You Rooney

Club songs are generally upbeat; they instil a sense of pride and should bring fans and clubs closer together. Unfortunately, for one Crawley Town fan, Mike Dobie, his song saw him banned by his club.

In 2011, Crawley Town was a non-league side. The club was drawn to play fellow Red Devils, Manchester United, at Old Trafford during a FA Cup run. To celebrate, Mike Dobie wrote a song called ‘A Message To You Rooney’, a re-working of ‘A Message To You Rudy’ by The Specials.

Mike’s celebration didn’t last long. A Manchester United fan complained to Crawley that Mike had made airplane gestures in the video to mock the Munich air crash victims, the 1958 tragedy that had cost the lives of many of United’s players. Crawley was appalled and promptly banned the song and the man behind it.

After playing and losing to United, the club has had success. It was promoted to the Football League, and then, at the first attempt, it was promoted on the last day of the 2012/13 season from League 2 to League 1.

The only other time the club has featured in a song was when portly manager Steve Evans left the club. Although Steve brought on-field success, his methods were not popular with players or fans. When news broke that he had accepted an offer to manage Rotherham, the players were filmed singing a rendition of ‘We’re Singing A Song ‘Cos The Fat Man’s Gone’ and Chubby Checker’s ‘Twist Again,’ to celebrate his exit.

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