Goals in the final 10 minutes from Dan Agyei and substitute Tariq Uwakwe saw Crewe Alexandra draw away to Harrogate Town yesterday.
Manager Lee Bell named an unchanged starting team from Tuesday’s 2-0 home win against Hartlepool United with defender Sean Robertson back on the bench following his red card last Saturday at Crawley Town.
The opening chance fell to the hosts in the 11th minute with Dave Richards making a double save to deny O’Connor and Armstrong before the first Alex chance fell to Agyei who had a shot blocked on 28 minutes. Harrogate took the lead in the 34th minute as Jack Muldoon played a 1-2 with Kazeem Olaigbe, firing past Richards into the bottom corner before Elliott Nevitt hit the post with Callum Ainley having his rebound saved by Oxley with a couple of minutes of the half to play.
The lead would be extended 7 minutes after the break as a corner was cleared to the edge of the area to Olaigbe smashing the ball into the goal before the Alex won a penalty with 9 minutes to play as Agyei was tripped by Alex Pattison, the striker sending Oxley the wrong way. The equaliser came 2 minutes from time as Robertson’s cross was controlled by Uwakwe who turned the ball in despite an attempt to clear the ball off the line, the midfielder scoring his first goal for the club.
The next games for the Alex see them travel to Walsall on Tuesday night before returning home to face Rochdale next Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
It was a poor performance for most of the game yet we leave with another point on the road (and a third straight game of 2 goals after having 27 games in all competitions without getting on the scoresheet more than once).
That said, it showed resilience to get back into the game and, although it looked like a soft penalty, it was well converted well by Agyei which gave us the shot in the arm that saw us build attacking momentum and Harrogate drop deeper.