A goal in each half from Omar Beckles and Chris Porter saw Crewe Alexandra defeat Accrington Stanley at the Alexandra Stadium last night, a result that keeps the hosts’ outside chance of a play-off spot intact.
Manager David Artell made 2 changes from Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Swindon Town as Donervon Daniels came in at right-back for his first start since October while Porter came in as we changed from our normal 4-3-3 formation to a 4-4-2 as Travis Johnson and Owen Dale both dropped down to the bench. Former Alex loanee Michael Nottingham started for the visitors while former loanee Gary Roberts not involved.
The opening chance of the game came in the 5th minute with Dion Charles getting in behind from out wide with Burnley loanee Adam Phillips shooting wide before the first Alex chance came on 18 minutes with Nathan Wood heading a Harry Pickering free-kick straight at Chelsea loanee Nathan Baxter in the visitors’ goal. The Alex took the lead in the 32nd minute as Charlie Kirk’s cross was spilled by Baxter with Beckles sidefooting in from the edge of the area.
The first moment of the second half saw Kirk played in behind by Mika Mandron with right-back Harvey Rodgers sent off for bringing him down just outside the area, Pickering hitting the resulting free-kick into the wall. On 57 minutes, Porter was played in by Kirk with Baxter saving his effort as Lowery hit the base of the post with the rebound before Porter had another effort saved by Baxter.
Ryan Wintle would be the next player to have an effort, this one blocked by Nottingham, before Porter doubled the lead 12 minutes from time from close range after great work from Lowery on the Alex right.
The next games for the Alex see us host Sunderland on Saturday before a trip to Blackpool next Tuesday night.
What can we take out of this game?
It’s another one of those games that could have seen us win by more but it’s good to get another win with a clean sheet (only our third clean sheet since the middle of November in all competitions).
The line-up was a little surprising as no-one had expected for us to play with a front 2 but that was a decent ‘Plan B’ against a team that usually plays with a back 3.
Alexandra Stadium
League 1
23/02/2021 8:00 pm
Attendance: 0
Referee: Brett Huxtable
| Crewe Alexandra | Accrington Stanley | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beckles, Porter | |||||||
| Richards | Baxter | ||||||
| Daniels | Rodgers | ||||||
| Wood | Nottingham | ||||||
| Beckles | Hughes | ||||||
| Pickering | Burgess | ||||||
| Lowery | Butcher | ||||||
| Wintle | Conneely | 80 | |||||
| Murphy | McConville | 54 | |||||
| Kirk | Phillips | 46 | |||||
| Porter | Bishop | ||||||
| Mandron | Charles | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Jaaskelainen | Savin | ||||||
| Powell | Russell | 80 | |||||
| Lancashire | Maguire | ||||||
| Dale | Uwakwe | 54 | |||||
| Johnson | Scully | ||||||
| Walker | Ogle | ||||||
| Evans | Morgan | 46 | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 17 | Goal attempts | 8 |
| 9 | On Target | 2 |
| 7 | Corners | 3 |
| 10 | Fouls | 8 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 1 |
| 54 | % | 46 |