A second-half brace from Oli Finney and a late Connor Evans goal saw Crewe Alexandra come from behind against Barnsley at Reaseheath in the Under-21 Professional Development League this afternoon.
Manager Michael Jackson named captain Dave Richards in goal behind a back 4 of Sam Bhatti, Harvey Washington, Lewis Billington and Rio Adebisi. In front of them were Khanya Leshabela and Regan Griffiths with Joel Tabiner, Finney and Matus Holicek playing behind Max Woodcock. Ty Webster, Owen Lunt, Lucas Sant, Rhys Allport and goalkeeper Tom Booth were on the bench.
Adebisi would draw a save out of Cooper in the 20th minute before the visitors opened the scoring 3 minutes before the break with Theo Chapman scoring from in the penalty area.
The equaliser came 8 minutes after the break with Finney the first to react to a Griffiths header coming back off the bar before Leshabela would miss the target 3 minutes later. The second goal came with 10 minutes to play as Finney got on the end of an Adebisi cross before they added the third a couple of minutes later with Evans heading in another cross from the left-back.
The next games at this level see the Alex travelling to Coventry City after the Xmas break on Tuesday 10th January before hosting Peterborough United the following Monday – both are 1:00 pm kick-offs.
Crewe: Richards (c); Bhatti, Washington, Billington, Adebisi; Leshabela, Griffiths; Tabiner (Sant 85), O. Finney, Holicek (Webster 59); Evans (Allport 85)
Barnsley: Cooper, McKay, Benjamin, Ariely, Hickingbottom, Pickard, Nejman (c), Chapman, Butterfill, Hartley, Trialist
