Goals from Mickey Demetriou, Chris Long and Shilow Tracey were not enough for Crewe Alexandra to defeat 10-man Wrexham at the Racecourse Ground yesterday after Ryan Barnett was sent off late in the first half.
Manager Lee Bell made 1 change from last Saturday’s 2-1 home win against Colchester United as defender Connor O’Riordan replaced midfielder Joe White, who dropped to the bench, with the Alex reverting to a back 5. Former Alex players Arthur Okonkwo, James Jones and George Evans started for the hosts while neither Callum McFadzean nor Billy Waters were involved.
The game’s opening chance went the visitors’ way in the 6th minute as Rio Adebisi would head a Jack Powell cross wide of the goal before Tracey forced a save out of Okonkwo 8 minutes later. The Alex would take the lead in the 24th minute with Demetriou heading in a corner from Joel Tabiner before the Red Dragons were reduced to 10 men 9 minutes before the interval as Barnett was shown a straight red card for a foul on Tracey.
They would be level 5 minutes before the break as Mullin would equalise with an overhead kick from a knock-down from Aaron Hayden before the Alex would re-take the lead deep in stoppage-time, James McClean brought Adebisi down in the area with Long putting the penalty away by beating Okonkwo into his bottom left corner. The score would be level again 2 minutes after the break as Ollie Palmer would chest into the path of Mullin to get his second of the afternoon.
The Alex would re-take the lead 25 minutes from time as an Adebisi burst into the area allowed the wing-back to round Okonkwo, his square pass allowed Tracey to score his first Alex goal from close range before substitute Fletcher would hit the post in the 3rd minute of stoppage-time before putting the hosts level in the sixth minute of additional time with a header from a tight angle.
The next couple of games see the Alex host Gillingham on Tuesday before travelling to Salford City next Saturday.
Final Thoughts:
We’d have happily taken a point prior to kick-off but would be have to be disappointed that we couldn’t hold on for three points given the circumstances of the game, both in terms of going ahead on three occasions as well as playing over 50 minutes with a man advantage.
Racecourse Ground
League 2
30/09/2023 4:00 pm
Attendance: 10007
Referee: Lee Swabey
| Wrexham | Crewe Alexandra | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mullin (2), Fletcher | Demetriou, Long, Tracey | ||||||
| Okonkwo | Davies | ||||||
| Barnett | Offord | ||||||
| Hayden | O'Riordan | ||||||
| Tozer | 90 | Demetriou | |||||
| Boyle | Adebisi | ||||||
| McClean | 75 | Powell | |||||
| Jones | 75 | Tabiner | |||||
| Evans | Williams | 85 | |||||
| Lee | Tracey | 81 | |||||
| Palmer | 82 | Baker-Richardson | |||||
| Mullin | Long | 87 | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Howard | Booth | ||||||
| Dalby | 82 | Cooney | 85 | ||||
| Mendy | 75 | Holicek | 81 | ||||
| Cannon | 90 | Nevitt | 87 | ||||
| O'Connor | Rowe | ||||||
| Fletcher | 75 | Finney | |||||
| Cleworth | White | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 12 | Goal attempts | 11 |
| 6 | On Target | 7 |
| 7 | Corners | 6 |
| 12 | Fouls | 12 |
| 4 | Yellow Cards | 4 |
| 1 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 51 | % | 49 |