Oli Finney’s second-half goal saw Crewe Alexandra extend their unbeaten run to 8 games (9 in all competitions) following a draw at Home Park against Plymouth Argyle yesterday afternoon following Luke Jephcott’s early penalty. Former Alex loanee Conor Grant would start at left wing-back for the hosts while Alex Academy Alumni Byron Moore was on their substitutes’ bench.
Manager David Artell made 2 changes from last Saturday’s 3-3 draw at Rochdale as Dave Richards replaced Will Jaaskelainen in goal while Olly Lancashire replaced Travis Johnson in defence with Luke Offord moving to right-back. Jaaskelainen and Johnson both dropped to the bench where they were joined by Chris Porter, Regan Griffiths and Rio Adebisi who all returned to the matchday squad.
The opening chance and goal of the game came in the 10th minute with a corner played short between Grant and Danny Mayor saw the former go into the penalty and go over in the area under pressure from Offord with Jephcott sending Richards the wrong way from the spot with the first Alex chance falling to Luke Murphy who couldn’t direct his shot from just outside the area.
The second half would see Lowery replace Murphy on the hour-mark and he would be involved in the equaliser, his ball found Mika Mandron who nutmegged the defender with his pass through to Finney to hit with the outside of his left foot from just outside the area.
The next games for the Alex see us with a couple of home games, firstly against Bristol Rovers on Tuesday evening before AFC Wimbledon travel north next Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
It was a difficult game against a side that is far better at home than on their travels (I think they are near the top of the table looking purely at the home form) and it took us a while to get a foothold into the game, at which point we were already behind. The penalty was never a penalty as Grant fell over a non-challenge from Offord but another game where Finney had been getting into pockets of space in between the opposition defence and midfield and was rewarded with his 7th of the season already – he’s on course to get near to 15 at the rate he’s going.