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2025-08-12 - Swansea City vs Crawley Town
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English League Cup First Round
Tuesday 12th August 2025 - Kick Off 7pm
Swansea City
An eighth year outside of the Premier League begun this past weekend and Swansea City's 1-0 defeat at Middlesbrough will have fans believing another year of mid-table mediocrity is about as good as it will get. The club have finished between 10th and 15th in the Championship in each of the last four seasons and Swansea City do not really have the financial muscle to compete with some of the top teams in the second tier.
Prior to the previous seven years in the Championship, Swansea City had spent seven consecutive years in the Premier League and even won a League Cup trophy during that time. The Swans have suffered one First Round exit in the last 4 years, but this is a team that have only reached the Third Round once in the last 5 campaigns.
Swansea City had not enjoyed much positivity from the pre-season results and so the defeat at the Riverside Stadium may not have been much of a surprise. Alan Sheehan will want to see a lot more from his team in the coming weeks than they produced at Middlesbrough, and the manager has to still be confident considering Swansea City finished last season with a single defeat in 8 League games played. Home form has been particularly strong with Swansea City having won 5 of their last 7 at the Swansea.com Stadium.
The League Cup is not a massive priority for clubs at this stage of the competition and rotation has to be expected. However, the manager may want to see more from his players having had just one League game under their belt.
Crawley Town
Scott Lindsey spent a positive nine months as manager of Crawley Town and he managed to take them up into League One for the first time via the Play Offs. He soon departed for a job with the MK Dons, but both Lindsey and Crawley Town did not work without one another and he was eventually reappointed as manager here just six months later.
It turned out to be an appointment that came a little too late and even the late season wins were not enough to prevent Crawley Town being relegated back into League Two. Despite only being relegated by a single point, the transfer activity in this summer window has been concerning and there have been plenty tipping Crawley Town up for relegation out of the Football League.
Crawley Town's players could have had a point to prove, but they have lost both opening League Two games and there will be some nerves around the club. They did end last season having won their final 3 League games, but Crawley Town's loss at Grimsby Town means they have been beaten in 6 of their last 9 on their travels in all competitions.
Head to Head
Swansea City won the League Cup in 2012/13 and they beat Crawley Town 2-3 away from home in the Third Round in September 2012 in the sole previous meeting between the clubs.
Prediction
If anyone has learned anything about the early Rounds of the League Cup, it is that the motivation is not always that high for clubs in the higher Divisions, even with potential silverware to be won.
Upsets are common and so stakes should always be kept to a minimum when betting on these Cup ties in August and September.
However, there are potential winners to be found and Swansea City look in a decent enough position to bounce back from a loss at Middlesbrough this past weekend.
Hosting is key for Swansea City, who have won 5 of their last 7 games here in all competitions, while they are also facing a Crawley Town lacking confidence.
Relegation alone is not the reason confidence is down, but the Crawley Town squad has lost some key players and Scott Lindsey is struggling to get a tune out of those remaining. Back to back League Two losses where Crawley Town have conceded five goals are hard to ignore and Swansea City will be looking to remind manager Alan Sheehan about what they can do in the final third following a poor outing.
The Pick :
Swansea City 3-1 Crawley Town
