Crewe Alexandra crashed out of the EFL Trophy after a home defeat against League 1 Shrewsbury Town at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday evening. A Crewe Alex victory in 90 minutes would have seen the Railwaymen advance into the knock-out stage alongside Manchester City’s Under-21 side.
Manager David Artell made 4 changes from Saturday’s defeat against Carlisle United in the FA Cup as Corey Whelan coming in at right-back, James Jones came into midfield whilst Shaun Miller and Jordan Bowery came in up front. Nicky Hunt, Charlie Kirk, Ollie Finney and Chris Porter all dropped down to the bench. Shrewsbury, after drawing on Sunday in the FA Cup against Salford City, rotated their full team for this game.
The opening chance fell to the visitors with Lee Angol testing Ben Garratt in the Alex goal from outside the penalty team before Whelan found Miller whose header was tipped over by Joel Coleman. The opening goal came just before the midway point of the first half after Abo Eisa’s shot was deflected in by George Ray before Lenell John-Lewis had a couple of chances for the visitors, first from a low cross before minutes later an Angol shot was deflected to him.
More chances came in the final 15 minutes of the first period with Jones having his effort saved by Coleman before Ng and Nicholls having efforts that came close, the latter being cleared off the goalline, the half ending with Ray hitting the post after a volley from a free-kick.
Into the second-half where there were more chances for the Alex for Nicholls and substitute Ryan Wintle before the Shrews extended the lead on 63 minutes through a drive from midfielder Alex Gilliead. The Alex would get on the scoresheet with 11 minutes remaining as Bowery would convert Whelan’s low ball in but it was not enough.
Crewe look to get their league campaign back on track on Saturday as we host Tranmere Rovers.
What have we learnt from this game?
Regardless of your feelings of the competition since the Under-21 teams have been added, whether you take part in the #BTeamBoycott or not, it’s never good to be eliminated from a competition that could have been used to rotate the squad a little as we had done in this game. Thought myself that Dave Richards would have played in at least one of the two cup games this week but it was good that Charlie Kirk wasn’t used in this one as it’ll see him fresher for Saturday’s game.