Accrington Stanley and Crewe Alexandra played out a goalless draw at the Crown Ground yesterday, the result meaning that the Alex had been goalless in each of their last three games.
Manager Lee Bell made 3 changes from Easter Monday’s 0-0 draw at Gillingham with Zac Williams, Lewis Leigh and Aaron Rowe coming in for Ed Turns, Chris Long (both injured) and Ryan Cooney who dropped down to the bench where he was joined by scholars Calum Agius, Lucas Sant and goalkeeper Mikaolaj Lenarcik (the first time he has made the matchday squad in the league for the first team). Former Alex defender Kelvin Mellor was named as one of the hosts’ substitutes.
The game’s opening chance came in the 14th minute as Rowe crossed for Williams to shoot goalwards but had his effort saved by Manchester United loanee Vitek before the hosts’ first effort saw midfielder Henderson drag the ball wide of Tom Booth’s goal 4 minutes later. Rowe would have an effort saved by Vitek on 29 minutes before Elliott Nevitt would put it past the Czech keeper’s post 5 minutes later.
The second half would see even fewer chances produced as the first chance came in the 58th minute with Williams heading a Leigh free-kick straight at Vitek before substitute Josh Woods shooting over the bar with 12 minutes to play.
The next couple of games see the Alex travelling to Morecambe on Tuesday before hosting Grimsby Town next Saturday.
Final Thoughts:
It’s another point towards getting a play-off spot and, with the injury count back into double figures after last Monday’s game, some would argue a good point in that regard.
That said, this could have been an opportunity to use some of the youngsters to give us some fresh legs in the game, especially with the game on Tuesday night too – even if it’s just to give some of the starters a bit of a rest of 10-15 minutes instead of them playing 90 minutes in each game.
Crown Ground
League 2
6/04/2024 4:00 pm
Attendance: 2658
Referee: Adam Herczeg
| Accrington Stanley | Crewe Alexandra | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vitek | Booth | ||||||
| O'Brien | Billington | ||||||
| Hills | Williams | ||||||
| Gubbins | Demetriou | ||||||
| Shipley | 85 | Adebisi | |||||
| Martin | 73 | Austerfield | |||||
| B. Woods | Leigh | ||||||
| Nolan | 46 | Holicek | |||||
| Henderson | Tracey | ||||||
| Whalley | 73 | Nevitt | |||||
| Leigh | 85 | Rowe | 87 | ||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| McIntyre | Lenarcik | ||||||
| Mellor | Cooney | 87 | |||||
| Lowe | 85 | Finney | |||||
| Pritchard | 46 | Kempster-Down | |||||
| Quirk | 85 | Woodcock | |||||
| Conneely | 73 | Agius | |||||
| J. Woods | 73 | Sant | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 11 | Goal attempts | 6 |
| 3 | On Target | 2 |
| 0 | Corners | 7 |
| 11 | Fouls | 8 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 50 | % | 50 |