FA Cup 
/ Gary Boswell / 17 February 2011 / Leave a Comment 
Which of these two is actually the Devil? Steve Evans has been known to resort to all sorts in a bid to win matches
"The opportunities for colossal betting value in the fixture are varied and vast as a scan through all the available Betfair markets will show. I’m backing the under 2.5 goals market at a hefty [3.8] or greater as my way of covering a United win. I don’t see it as a likely landslide."
At first glance this promises to be one of the most one-sided matches we'll see anywhere across the country this weekend but scratch beneath the surface and there are good reasons to think Crawley will put a very decent fight, throwing up plenty of In-Play opportunities...
Did you hear the one about when Satan tried to buy his own soul? Got swindled and ended up with Gary Neville at right back!
I heard that in a pub in Liverpool after the draw for the fifth round of the FA Cup had been made and the biblical clash between the two sets of Red Devils had first been decreed. Manchester United versus Crawley Town live on your ITV telly box at17:15 this Saturday and all the potential for one of those classic FA Cup encounters you would not want to miss.
Not least because Crawley Town might just win it. They are a monster [36.0] no-hoper on the match game market, already traded as high as [40.0] in the run-up and are likely to go higher still In-Play if the game opens without a goal in the first quarter.
Manchester United's last two FA Cup encounters against non-league opposition both ended 0-0 so there is cause to suggest that the draw price of [15.0] is value or that taking the [1.1] Lay price on United is one of those low risk bets to nearly nothing. Certainly, you can lay United before kick off with high expectation of a buy back at bigger prices at some stage In-Play. Only an early United goal followed by an uncompetitive domination of the minnow would scupper that strategy. Trackers of non league football will know that is a small possibility but less of a one than is normal in a fixture like this.
Crawley Town are not idly flagged up as the non league Red Devils. Their similarities go way beyond their same nicknames. Early examples of football club bio-mimicry is not an absurd description!
It goes right through to the managers. Steve Evans has less class perhaps but it is also noticeable how the boorish foul mouth who regularly gets sent to the stands in games that don't matter, disappears for days like this. He becomes supremely focussed. He's noted for his trench mentality and his meticulous planning. I watched him pull every stunt in the book - some legal, some not - the year he took Boston up as the second best Conference side behind Dagenham and Redbridge. The critical play in pinching the title had been engaging Dagenham's then manager Garry Hill in a focus splitting media spat not at all dissimilar to the one more famously practised on Kevin Keegan a year or two earlier by you know who.
What seriously impressed me about the way Crawley beat Derby County in Round 3 of this year's FA Cup was not the fact that here was a non league team - albeit an expensively assembled one - beating a Championship midtabler on merit in all areas of the pitch. The clincher was the way in which Robbie Savage was identified as the class who could pass through Crawley and was thus nobbled by a two footer just before half time. Not by a clinical defender who might have been red carded but by topscoring striker Matt Tubbs who got the lenient 'just a clumsy striker challenge' yellow from the referee. Savage was incensed. Took his eye totally off his football and was invisible second half.
Such is the way Steve Evans reads the game. Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney beware! There'll be some devilment awaiting you!
The opportunities for colossal betting value in the fixture are varied and vast as a scan through all the available Betfair markets will show. I'm backing the under 2.5 goals market at a hefty [3.8] or greater as my way of covering a United win. I don't see it as a likely landslide. Pablo Mills was 'rested' for the critical Wrexham league double header in the run up. Evans ensuring he has optimum defence.
And if Crawley can nick it 1-0 or they get off to the sort of start that Havant & Waterlooville did at Anfield a few years ago, then the most likely Crawley scorers are Matt Tubbs or Sergio Torres. Their first goalscorer prices of around [26.0] and [55.0] respectively (once the Betfair market matures) are further succulent speculative value. The correct score 0-0 at [36.0] and greater is also worth a look whether you choose to trade In-Play or not.
Get yer bets on. Strap back in your seat at the Theatre of Screams as Satan looks himself in the mirror and attempts to rewrite the history books live on your TV!
THE BOZ's RECOMMENDED BETS:
1pt BACK on the under 2.5 goals market at around [3.8] or greater in the Manchester United versus Crawley Town FA Cup Tie
1pt LAY on Manchester United at [1.1] to be traded back In-Play at greater price
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