Before a ball was kicked this season there was not a single team in League Two considered less likely to win promotion than Crawley Town. A little over seven months later, on a glorious afternoon at Wembley, they completed a triumphant playoff blitz by beating Crewe Alexandra 2-0 to secure a ludicrously far-fetched but indisputably deserved rise to League One.
Scott Lindsey’s side finished one place clear of relegation last season but this year surged to seventh, snatching a playoff place by winning on the final day while Barrow drew against Mansfield. Once there they blew MK Dons away in the semi-finals by the record-breaking aggregate score of 8-1 and carried that momentum to Wembley, where they brushed aside the challenge of a Crewe side that had already done the double over them this season to complete an astonishing ascent.
