Crawley Town ready for Manchester United FA Cup battle

Crawley Town FC are preparing to take on Manchester United in the fifth round of the FA Cup at Old Trafford.

They're only the sixth non-league club to reach this stage of the tournament since the end of the Second World War.

On their way, they've knocked out League Two's Torquay, League One's Swindon and Championship side Derby County.

More than 9,000 Crawley fans will be in Manchester after their allocation of tickets sold out in four hours.

The club go into the match sitting second in the Blue Square Bet Premier table and have gone 11 games unbeaten.

Here's what people in the town are making of the match ahead of this weekend, which is live on BBC Radio 5 Live at 5.15pm on Saturday 19 February.

"I've been with the club for four seasons and I'm the longest serving player.

"I know our chances of winning are slim but we'll give it a go.

"At the end of the day it's 11 versus 11 on the pitch and I'm honoured to be part of it.

"Obviously I hope Ryan Giggs plays for Manchester United as he's the ultimate professional, so I'd love to get the chance to go up against him.

"I'd love to gets Giggs's shirt at the final whistle too, whether he wants to take mine or not is another question.

"Technically, Manchester United are a tad better than us but we'll have to just do our best.

"If I'm honest I'm a bit nervous. It's an intimidating place to go but the chance of playing in front of more than 70,000 people is immense."

"When the draw was made I went nuts, along with everybody else here at the club. It's a once in a lifetime chance to play possibly the greatest team in the world.

"As for the match, my heart says Crawley but my head says Crawley too.

"I've just got a feeling we can go out there and get a result. Seriously I do.

"I think there'll be a goal in it. You never know which players they'll send out, but if they put forward a second strength side I reckon we can surprise them."

"We're getting the coach up to the match. There's about 25 coachloads of Crawley fans heading up the M6.

"I'm a huge fan and every Saturday I can get off work we go to see them.

"The club's had a massive turnaround in recent years and we've got great players like Sergio Torres and Matthew Tubbs at the moment who are on fire.

"I think Manchester United will see this as an easy game but if we get one goal in, it'll put the pressure on them.

"I reckon we may have a chance and it'll possibly end 2-1 to Crawley.

"To be honest it's just the thought of Crawley Town walking out into the Theatre of Dreams that's amazing."

"There's such a buzz around town. Everyone's talking about it, everyone's watching it.

"People at work are trying to get their shifts changed so they finish early and see it.

"Everyone knows it's going to be immense. I'm not going, but will be heading down the pub.

"To be honest, I think they'll lose, but it'll be so brilliant to see them play such a big club.

"You never know we might get a lucky goal but we're ready to lose.

"And even then, we wouldn't be disappointed. We're playing Manchester United. It's huge."