Billy Sass-Davies‘ first professional goal for the club was not enough for Crewe Alexandra to advance in the first round of the Carabao Cup against Lincoln City at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday.
With a number of players missing due to knocks and international duty, manager David Artell named Dave Richards in goal with a back 4 of captain Perry Ng, Sass-Davies, Olly Lancashire and Harry Pickering, Ryan Wintle played in midfield alongside Oli Finney and the returning Luke Murphy while Owen Dale and Charlie Kirk played either side of debutant Mikael Mandron in the front three. On the bench for the Alex were Eddie Nolan, Callum Ainley, Regan Griffiths, Josh Lundstram, Travis Johnson, Tyreece Onyeka and goalkeeper Sam Booth while former Alex midfielder James Jones made his debut for the visitors in their midfield.
The opening chance of the season came 8 minutes into the game with Dale’s pullback finding Finney, his effort firing wide of the post with Lincoln’s first effort coming just after the half-hour mark with Jorge Grant having an effort that was saved by Richards. Finney would have another effort that would go past the post with the Alex shading the first half.
Olly Lancashire would hit the bar two minutes after the break before Hopper would open the scoring 5 minutes later. Sass-Davies would head home a Kirk corner 3 minutes later before Montsma would volley home the winner midway through the second period.
The next game for the Alex sees a trip to the University of Bolton Stadium on Tuesday night in the EFL Trophy while the league season kicks off next Saturday with Charlton Athletic the visitors to the Alexandra Stadium.
What can we take out of this game?
With seeing the number of players that were missing (Jaaskelainen due to international duty, Beckles not registered in time and those missing though injuries), going out at the first stage of this competition isn’t necessarily a bad thing – especially when you consider that there is no prize money at this stage in the competition when compared to the EFL Trophy for example – and I feel that we’ll see a stronger team on Tuesday night before going as strong as possible next week.
Having extra time on the training ground during the midweek after the Charlton game will help with getting players back without them missing too much game time.
Alexandra Stadium
Carabao Cup
5/09/2020 4:00 pm
Attendance: 0
Referee: Scott Oldham
| Crewe Alexandra | Lincoln City | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sass-Davies | Hopper, Montsma | ||||||
| Richards | Palmer | ||||||
| Ng | Eyoma | ||||||
| Lancashire | Bradley | ||||||
| Sass-Davies | Montsma | ||||||
| Pickering | Roughan | ||||||
| Murphy | McGrandles | ||||||
| Wintle | Edun | 81 | |||||
| Finney | 71 | Jones | |||||
| Dale | Scully | 90 | |||||
| Mandron | Hopper | ||||||
| Kirk | Grant | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Booth | Ross | ||||||
| Nolan | Jackson | ||||||
| Ainley | 71 | Archibald | |||||
| Griffiths | Howarth | 90 | |||||
| Lundstram | Morton | 81 | |||||
| Johnson | Elbouzedi | ||||||
| Onyeka | Anderson | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 13 | Goal attempts | 13 |
| 5 | On Target | 5 |
| 7 | Corners | 9 |
| 10 | Fouls | 11 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 54 | % | 46 |