Drummy searching for the missing masses

As Reds make their debut in this season’s competition, he posed the question about getting back the massive 9,200 travelling Crawley fans who who graced Old Trafford on February 19, 2011.

If they could tap-in to the kind of enthusiasm the FA Cup generates, it would surely see a welcome improvement to gates and revenue.

Drummy said: “We want to get Crawley back to those heights.

“Certainly the ambition of Ziya (Eren) is to build on a strong basis and an FA Cup run and the play-offs would make it a fantastic season.

“The feedback from social media is that the club have been in lull. The prospects at the moment seem brighter and I am really happy with that.

“Where are the missing 7,000? Can we can get some of those back with an FA Cup run?

“One thing I have sensed is the atmosphere at the ground is exciting since we played Barnet last season to now.

“The players I am signing are creative, they are working hard for the badge.

“We’ve got to play attractive football that gets people off their seats. The players I have signed understand the emphasis I want to put on the club.”

Last Thursday Drummy celebrated exactly six months in the job and spoke about his love for the job.

He said: “I think we’ve come a long way in a short distance of time.

“My task is to keep our status, get into the play-offs and build a team.

“Hopefully for the beginning of next season I want to have a strong back base of players from this season and just build on that.

“We have started OK, I am happy with what we have done. I am determined to succeed as a coach and as a person.

“At Crawley it’s a super opportunity for us to get higher up the ladder.

“I’m on a two-year contract here so you are building. It’s a results-based business but I am pleased with how we have started.

“If we had been in the bottom-three, the pressure and the scrutiny, because it’s my first job would have been higher.

“Taking Crawley is a very important journey for me and at the moment, touch wood, I’m pleased.

“When you wake up at 2am and you start watching the Stevenage or the Cheltenham game means you have either got something wrong with your marriage or you are really into it. It’s a bug, and I didn’t have that at Chelsea as a 21 coach.

“It’s the scutiny, the media. You have to perform. I prefer to be challenged and be watched every performance.

“I am trying to prepare every game professionally and am trying to be better, have better players, better equipment and standards for Crawley.”

Drummy admitted the pressure as a first team coach for a League Two club like Crawley is bigger than his role for Premier League Chelsea.

“I look at the people in the office and if we go down some of them may lose their job - I lose my job and I take it as my responsibility for the club.

“At Chelsea and you had the debut of (Ruben) Loftus-Cheek, that was the development.

“There was pressure to win the under-21s, but it’s not the pressure of winning a game here.”

Drummy welcomed the recent announcement about the appointment of Selim Gaygusuz, who is the new director of operations and Koray Duman, who is the new director of foreign relations.

He said: “I have worked with Selim since I arrived here. The football operations side is a massive part of the club with the training ground, academy, the under-21s.

“I can advise and help Selim but I don’t have the time to do all that but you need a designated director to take it forward.

“Will he pick the team? No. We will have deliberation on transfers and he was important in the Enzio (Boldewijn) deal and (James) Collins. He brings them into me and I decide if we sign them.

“We are getting our performance right on the pitch because if you don’t get that right, and you are down the bottom, I’m out of a job.

“You need to grow off the pitch as well as on the pitch and that responsibility needs to be taken by a director of football in my opinion.”