Goals from John Marquis, James Wilson, Antony Evans and a Ryan Cooney own-goal saw Bristol Rovers into Round 3 of the FA Cup as they defeated Crewe Alexandra at the Alexandra Stadium last night, their reward being a trip to Norwich City next month.
Manager Lee Bell made 3 changes from Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Grimsby Town as Zac Williams, Joe White and Aaron Rowe came into the team for Ryan Cooney, Elliott Nevitt (who both dropped down to the bench) and Connor O’Riordan who missed out due to a knock. Former Alex loanee Evans started for the visitors.
The game’s opening chance came in the 6th minute as a long throw from Mickey Demetriou was punched out by Matthew Cox in the Gas goal with Lewis Billington volleying it over before the visitors opened the scoring in the 18th minute as Marquis curled the ball into the bottom corner.
The lead would be doubled 6 minutes later as an Evans corner from the right was attacked by Wilson, the defender also finishing into the bottom corner before the third came 3 minutes before the break with Evans curling the ball into the top corner from the corner of the penalty area following a ball back from Jack Hunt.
Williams made way for Cooney at the break with the defender giving Evans a third goal contribution of the night as he turned an Evans cross into his own net minutes after coming on before Nevitt and Charlie Colkett came on for Billington and Shilow Tracey just before the hour-mark. The former would get one back on 65 minutes as he got on the end of a Rio Adebisi through-ball to curl into the bottom corner before the lead would be reduced further 8 minutes later after a great run from Joe White allowed Rowe to bundle the ball in from close range.
The next couple of games see the Alex host Accrington Stanley on Saturday before hosting Barrow the following Friday.
Final Thoughts:
It was a disappointing way of going out of the competition after giving ourselves far too big a mountain to climb, even before the own goal. The best thing, with the squad the way it currently is numbers-wise, was avoiding travelling down for a replay next week and going out last night.
Alexandra Stadium
FA Cup
12/12/2023 8:45 pm
Attendance: 3127
Referee: Declan Bourne
| Crewe Alexandra | Bristol Rovers | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nevitt, Rowe | Marquis, Wilson, Evans, og | ||||||
| Davies | Cox | ||||||
| Billington | 59 | Taylor | |||||
| Demetriou | Wilson | 49 | |||||
| Offord | Crama | ||||||
| Adebisi | Hunt | 46 | |||||
| Thomas | Woods | 74 | |||||
| White | Finley | 59 | |||||
| Williams | 46 | Evans | |||||
| Tracey | 59 | Vale | |||||
| Baker-Richardson | Marquis | 74 | |||||
| Rowe | 86 | Collins | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Booth | Hall | ||||||
| Cooney | 46 | Grant | |||||
| Colkett | 59 | Sinclair | 74 | ||||
| Nevitt | 59 | Ward | 59 | ||||
| Finney | 86 | Thomas | 46 | ||||
| Agius | Martin | ||||||
| Robinson | Brown | 74 | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 7 | Goal attempts | 7 |
| 3 | On Target | 5 |
| 5 | Corners | 1 |
| 11 | Fouls | 4 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 54 | % | 46 |