It was announced on 12 May, that Crawley were in talks to appoint Sean O'Driscoll as their new manager. Under a tight budget at Doncaster Rovers he achieved promotion to the Football League Championship in his first full season. He was appointed as manager four days later. Despite Crawley chief executive Alan Williams being convinced they had made 'the perfect appointment', he left on 12 July, to become the new manager of Nottingham Forest, meaning that he did not take charge of Crawley for a single game.