Crewe Alexandra have been eliminated from this season’s EFL Trophy following a defeat on penalties to Hull City at the KCOM Stadium last night after the game finished goalless after 90 minutes.
Manager David Artell made nine changes from Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Burton Albion with Dave Richards replacing Will Jaaskelainen, defenders Billy Sass-Davies, Eddie Nolan and Rio Adebisi coming into the back 4. In midfield, captain Perry Ng returned (his suspension doesn’t include EFL Trophy games) alongside Regan Griffiths and Oli Finney while Offrande Zanzala and Charlie Kirk started either side of Chris Porter in the front 3. On the bench were Harry Pickering, Tom Lowery, Mika Mandron, Olly Lancashire, Owen Dale, Luke Murphy and substitute keeper Will Jaaskelainen.
The opening chance of the game came in the 3rd minute with Kirk having an effort that was blocked before the next chance came 8 minutes later with Porter heading a Johnson cross straight at goalkeeper George Long from 6 yards out. The next opportunity came just before the half-hour with Griffiths finding Finney whose effort hit the side-netting as the Alex had the better of the first half.
The second-half started with Richards making a save from Greg Docherty 9 minutes after the break before the hosts had the ball in the net 3 minutes later with Festus Arthur heading home a free-kick but was in an offside position. Richards would make another decent save 11 minutes from time denying Lewie Coyle as the game would go to penalties.
Porter scored the first penalty for the Alex with Docherty missing the Tigers’ first, misses from Finney, Griffiths and Zanzala (with Chadwick and captain Coyle scoring in between for Hull) with Mallik Wilks missing the 4th for the hosts. Ng scored the Alex fifth as did Hakeeb Adelakun to see the hosts progress into the Northern quarter-finals.
The next games for the Alex see us play two home games in the next week, Northampton Town on Saturday and a home game against Plymouth Argyle next Tuesday.
What can we take out of this game?
Not the best game to watch to be honest with few chances for either team but having a few free midweeks later in the season could be good to avoid fatigue if those who have been regulars in the Trophy games should they also be involved with the league games.
The penalties weren’t great (I tweeted after 90 mins last night to bring on more of the penalty takers such as Mika, Pixie or Murph) but I think that we need to practice them a little more before future cup-ties that could go to penalties.
KCOM Stadium
EFL Trophy
8/12/2020 6:30 pm
Attendance: 0
Referee: James Bell
| Hull City | Crewe Alexandra | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long | Richards | ||||||
| Coyle | Johnson | ||||||
| Arthur | Sass-Davies | ||||||
| McLoughlin | Nolan | ||||||
| Fleming | Adebisi | ||||||
| Slater | Griffiths | ||||||
| Docherty | Ng | ||||||
| Sheaf | 72 | Finney | |||||
| Mayer | 63 | Zanzala | |||||
| Eaves | 36 | Porter | |||||
| Scott | Kirk | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Ingram | Jaaskelainen | ||||||
| Wilks | 36 | Pickering | |||||
| Adelakun | 72 | Lowery | |||||
| Greaves | Mandron | ||||||
| Chadwick | 63 | Lancashire | |||||
| Salam | Dale | ||||||
| Leake | Murphy | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 9 | Goal attempts | 5 |
| 2 | On Target | 1 |
| 9 | Corners | 3 |
| 14 | Fouls | 10 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 48 | % | 52 |