Goals from Jordan Davies and a Luke Young penalty after a Lewis Billington own goal saw Wrexham defeat 10-man Crewe Alexandra in the EFL Trophy at the Alexandra Stadium last night, a result that saw the hosts eliminated from the competition and the visitors advance into the knock-out stage.
Manager Lee Bell made 9 changes from Saturday’s 4-2 defeat at Salford City as Tom Booth, Billington, Aaron Rowe, Owen Lunt, Charlie Colkett, Charlie Finney, Calum Agius, Elliott Nevitt and Joe White come into the team as Harvey Davies, Rio Adebisi, Courtney Baker-Richardson, Shilow Tracey and Jack Powell all dropped down to the bench while Mickey Demetriou, Connor O’Riordan, Joel Tabiner and Matus Holicek were not involved at all (Connor and Matus on international duty for Republic of Ireland and Slovakia respectively).
The game’s opening chance and goal came in the 6th minute as Jordan Tunnicliffe headed a corner with the last touch coming from Alex defender Billington before their second came 7 minutes later as a goal-kick was flicked into the path of Davies who got himself free in the area before firing past Booth.
The Alex keeper would save from defender Max Cleworth on 34 minutes before the Alex would lose captain Luke Offord on 72 minutes for a trip on Jake Bickerstaff, Young sending Booth the wrong way from the spot.
The next couple of games sees the Alex hosting Tranmere Rovers on Saturday before travelling to Crawley Town the following Saturday.
Final Thoughts:
It was a game that saw more valuable minutes for players who are on the fringe of starting in the league (which probably would have included Cooney if he wasn’t sent off in the first group game at the Vale) and another senior game for a number of the youngsters, including a debut for defender Nathan Robinson who came on in the final 10 minutes for Zak Williams.
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
10/10/2023 7:30 pm
Attendance: 3751
Referee: Aaron Jackson
| Crewe Alexandra | Wrexham | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| og, J. Davies, Young | |||||||
| Booth | McNicholas | ||||||
| Billington | Hosannah | ||||||
| Offord | Cleworth | ||||||
| Williams | 82 | Boyle | |||||
| Finney | Tunnicliffe | ||||||
| Colkett | McAlinden | ||||||
| Lunt | J. Davies | 84 | |||||
| Rowe | Young | ||||||
| White | 74 | Cannon | |||||
| Agius | Bickerstaff | ||||||
| Nevitt | Dalby | 90 | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Davies | Hall | ||||||
| Adebisi | Barnett | ||||||
| Baker-Richardson | James | 84 | |||||
| Tracey | Cushion | ||||||
| Powell | Ashfield | 90 | |||||
| Nolan | 74 | D. Davies | |||||
| Robinson | 82 | Edwards | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 12 | Goal attempts | 10 |
| 4 | On Target | 8 |
| 4 | Corners | 5 |
| 7 | Fouls | 17 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 1 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 64 | % | 36 |