A goal in either half from Charlie Kirk and a first senior goal for Tom Lowery gave Crewe Alexandra all 3 points at home to Yeovil Town on Good Friday.
Manager David Artell made 3 changes from last Saturday’s 3-0 home win against Notts County as Will Jaaskelainen and Billy Sass-Davies both came in for their first Football League starts with James Jones coming into the midfield 3 with Ben Garratt and Paul Green both dropping down to the bench with Aaron Taylor-Sinclair missing out due to an injury. Former Alex loanee Ryan Seager (who made 4 appearances on loan from Southampton in early 2016) started for the visitors.
The opening chance of the game came in the 4th minute with Callum Ainley nipping in between 2 Yeovil defenders who left it for each other with his pass finding Kirk who curled it in past Nathan Baxter in the visitors’ goal. Ainley almost produced a second but no one could get on the end of his 17th-minute cross before Baxter made a save from Kirk 5 minutes later.
The first chance for the visitors came on the half-hour mark with Tom James curling a free-kick over the bar before Alex Fisher headed an Alex Dobre cross over the bar a minute later.
Into the second period with Sessi D’Almeida’s shot from the edge of the area was saved by Jaaskelainen before Kirk had an effort disallowed for offside which should have stood before Jaaskelainen made another decent save from Seager’s effort. The visitors were reduced to 10 men when Adel Gafaiti kicked Nicky Hunt off the ball with the Alex taking advantage with 25 left as they doubled the lead.
An Ainley cross was volleyed by Kirk to Chris Porter, whose effort from close range was blocked but Lowery turned the ball home from 3 yards out for his first goal for the first team. As the game died down a little, substitute Ollie Finney curled one wide from the edge of the area before Kirk then Perry Ng forced Baxter into another couple of decent sides.
The next two games see a trip to Swindon Town on Easter Monday before the final home game against Forest Green Rovers next Saturday.
What have we learnt from this game?
Another decent enough performance without really having to do much.
Will played well in goal and with both him and Billy making their first career starts in the Football League, neither looked out of place in the first-team picture with the senior figures of Ng, Eddie Nolan and Hunt all helping the youngsters through the game.
Lowery was his normal self in midfield, getting himself involved as much as possible and looks the perfect foil for Wintle in midfield and something that I’d like to see more of going forward, not just for the rest of this season but beyond that.
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
19/04/2019 4:00 pm
Attendance: 3410
Referee: Eddie Ilderton
| Crewe Alexandra | Yeovil Town | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kirk, Lowery | |||||||
| Jaaskelainen | Baxter | ||||||
| Ng | Mugabi | ||||||
| Sass-Davies | Sowunmi | ||||||
| Nolan | Gafaiti | ||||||
| Hunt | James | ||||||
| Wintle | Abrahams | 76 | |||||
| Lowery | Pattison | ||||||
| Jones | 68 | D'Almeida | |||||
| Ainley | 68 | Dobre | |||||
| Porter | Fisher | 64 | |||||
| Kirk | Seager | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Garratt | Nelson | ||||||
| Miller | Worthington | 64 | |||||
| Bowery | 75 | Gray | |||||
| Green | Duffus | 64 | |||||
| Dale | 68 | Zoko | 76 | ||||
| Finney | 68 | Ojo | |||||
| Reilly | Santos | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 17 | Goal attempts | 16 |
| 8 | On Target | 5 |
| 2 | Corners | 7 |
| 4 | Fouls | 5 |
| 0 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 1 |
| 49 | % | 51 |