Goals from Connor O’Riordan and Newcastle United loanee Joe White saw Crewe Alexandra defeat Gillingham at the Alexandra Stadium last night, a result that saw the hosts move up into the automatic promotion spots.
Manager Lee Bell named an unchanged side from Saturday’s 3-3 draw at Wrexham, keeping with the 3 centre-halves, as he would also name the same bench too.
The game’s opening chance went the hosts’ way in the 8th minute as Rio Adebisi headed wide from a Chris Long cross before a Jack Powell cross was headed by Courtney Baker-Richardson a couple of minutes later. The Gills would hit the post on 20 minutes as Coleman’s daisy-cutter hit the right-hand upright before the Alex took the lead 10 minutes later as a corner was cleared out to Shilow Tracey, he passed to Zac Williams with the Welshman’s cross headed in by O’Riordan for his first of the season.
Gillingham had a couple of decent opportunities to go in level at the break, George Lapslie denied by Harvey Davies before Macauley Bonne missed a sitter from inside the 6-yard box a few minutes later. The Alex would double the lead with 5 minutes to play and saw substitutes Matus Holicek, Aaron Rowe and White combine to seal the win, Holicek would win the ball in midfield before playing in Rowe whose cross found the unmarked White to slot past Jake Turner, a former Newcastle United teammate, to wrap up the points.
The next couple of games see the Alex travel to Salford City on Saturday before returning home for the EFL Trophy game against Wrexham next Tuesday.
Final Thoughts:
Another three points towards a potential push towards the promotion picture, that’s 6 unbeaten in the league and takes the unbeaten run to 13 at home going back to last season.
Ogie, the centre-back for Gillingham, was one of the best players that we’ve seen defensively in this league for a while so it’ll be interesting to see how long he is playing at this level for.
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
3/10/2023 7:45 pm
Attendance: 3247
Referee: Daniel Middleton
| Crewe Alexandra | Gillingham | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| O'Riordan, White | |||||||
| Davies | Turner | ||||||
| Offord | Alexander | 46 | |||||
| O'Riordan | Masterson | ||||||
| Demetriou | Ogie | ||||||
| Adebisi | Malone | ||||||
| Powell | 73 | Coleman | |||||
| Tabiner | McKenzie | 86 | |||||
| Williams | 64 | Mahoney | |||||
| Tracey | 73 | Lapslie | 64 | ||||
| Baker-Richardson | 64 | Jefferies | 75 | ||||
| Long | 46 | Bonne | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Booth | Morris | ||||||
| Cooney | Clark | ||||||
| Holicek | 46 | Ehmer | |||||
| Nevitt | 64 | Williams | 64 | ||||
| Rowe | 73 | Nichols | 46 | ||||
| Finney | 64 | Nadesan | 75 | ||||
| White | 73 | Clarke | 86 | ||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 9 | Goal attempts | 13 |
| 4 | On Target | 5 |
| 6 | Corners | 4 |
| 7 | Fouls | 9 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 49 | % | 51 |