Richard Low has been appointed as the new chief executive of Crawley Town.

Low, 44, comes to the Broadfield Stadium from Aldershot FC, where he has spent the last two years as a director and chief executive. He takes over from Alan Williams.

He was born in Langley Green and has always followed the fortunes of his hometown club. A UEFA qualified coach, he initially got involved with Aldershot coaching in their Academy before moving into a role on the business side of the club. Away from football, he owns a number of businesses including a Hampshire-based estate agency that helps him maintain an extensive property portfolio.

Low said: “I’m delighted to accept this role at an important and exciting time in the development of this great football club.

“Crawley Town has made fantastic progress in the last couple of years and everyone involved during that period has played their part, on and off the field.

“We have to be realistic. Although our fan base has risen more than any other League club in the last two years our attendances this season have not increased as much as we had projected and gate revenue remains one of our biggest sources of income.

“Of course results on the pitch are crucial to getting more people through the turnstiles and one of the challenges we all now face is to establish an even higher level of community engagement in Crawley and the surrounding areas and, as a result, increase our supporter base.

“We are in a good position to challenge for the play-offs this season but also we have to be realistic. It is going to be very difficult to maintain the progress of the last two seasons on average gates of 3,400. We may have to consolidate at this level for a couple of seasons, make the infrastructure even better and give ourselves solid foundations from which to move forward.

“We are extremely fortunate that in Richie Barker we have a manager who is both experienced and adept at getting the very best out of the resources available and someone who is passionate about developing young players."