Today we look back at the promotion season of 2011/12, the last time the Alex found themselves competing in League Two.
Every Crewe fan will remember this season by the 2-0 Wembley victory over Cheltenham in the playoffs, however promotion was not looking likely in the earlier part of the season.
The Alex began their season with four straight losses, including back-to-back 2-1 home defeats. A win at Plymouth, thanks to a goal from Shaun Miller, began a run of three straight wins and this indifferent form continued through the rest of September and throughout October, with late goals costing the team points against Dagenham, Southend and Port Vale. On 11 November Dario Gradi then stepped down and his assistant Steve Davis was appointed with the team in 18th place. He would only lose 4 league games in the rest of the season to reach the playoffs.
Form continued to be indifferent but there were signs things were picking up. Davis` first game was a dramatic comeback win at Morecambe with Max Clayton scoring a 95th minute winner. Only one loss followed before January with this run including a 5-2 win at Bristol Rovers where the Alex were 4-1 up at half time. Defeats at the start and end of January (including a defeat against Barnet where we found ourselves playing the second half with 9 men) came either side of a three-match winning run, with late goals coming away at Oxford and at home to Dagenham, this time in our favour.
A 1-0 defeat away at Southend on 18th February proved to be the last defeat of the season for the Alex. At this point Crewe were 12th in the league and 5 points off the playoffs. A run of 7 wins and 9 draws from our final 16 games meant we had all but secured our playoff spot before the final game of the season. We ended in 7th place, and were to face Southend in the semi-final.
With Southend having recorded the league double over the Alex, and having finished 3 places higher, they went into the game as the favourites. However, our boys did not see it this way and an Adam Dugdale header from an Ashley Westwood free kick gave us a narrow advantage and we never looked back. Ajay Leitch-Smith gave us a 24th minute lead in the second leg and, despite riding our luck at times, it was left to 17 year old substitute Max Clayton to seal Crewe`s place at Wembley after a 2-2 draw.
The final would be against Cheltenham, who beat Torquay 4-1 on aggregate and I am sure it is a day that as fans we remember well. The Alex took the lead on 15 minutes with a cracking strike from the soon to depart Nick Powell, his 15th goal of the season. Cheltenham created chances after that but failed to take them. Byron Moore doubled the lead with 8 minutes to go and Crewe won the game to go into League One.
This season just shows the power of the underdog. Nobody expected us to get promoted; yet with a remarkable turnaround and a club record unbeaten run we got there. Let`s hope we can have similar success this time around in League Two.