Braces from Regan Griffiths and Offrande Zanzala alongside one from Olly Lancashire saw Crewe Alexandra beat Birmingham City by one in a 9-goal thriller.
Manager Alex Morris named Dave Richards in goal with a back 4 of Travis Johnson, Lancashire, Billy Sass-Davies and Nathan Woodthorpe. In front of them were a midfield 3 of Josh Lundstram, Griffiths and Tom Lowery while Callum Ainley and Tyreece Onyeka played either side of Zanzala in the front 3.
Birmingham would take the lead in the second minute through Kyle Hurst before Griffiths scored both the equaliser on 6 minutes and the second 11 minutes later as we went into the break in the lead. Birmingham would level from the penalty spot with Adan George fouled by Johnson before scoring the kick himself. Zanzala would score a header on 64 minutes then another goal within a minute before Lancashire would head home the fifth with 12 minutes to play. Amari Miller would score off the inside of the post a couple of minutes later before Ryan Stirk volleyed in late on.
The next game for the Alex at this level will be our opening home game against Coventry City a week tomorrow (Wed 30th) at 1 pm before a trip to Barnsley 2 weeks today (Tues 6th) at 2 pm.
Crewe: Richards; Johnson, Lancashire, Sass-Davies, Woodthorpe; Lundstram, Griffiths, Lowery (Robbins 46); Ainley, Zanzala, Onyeka
Birmingham: Clayton, Williams, Djurovic, Stirk, Bajrami, Redmond, Walker, Campbell, Hurst (Miller 74), George, Fernandez
