Goals in either half from Charlie Kirk and Tom Lowery gave Crewe Alexandra the victory against promotion-chasing Bradford City at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday, a win that saw the hosts move back into the top 3 of the league table.
Manager Dave Artell made 4 changes from Tuesday night’s defeat to Aston Villa in the EFL Cup with Will Jaaskelainen returning Dave Richards in goal, Harry Pickering replaced Rio Adebisi at left-back, Paul Green returned in midfield for Callum Ainley and Daniel Powell replaced Owen Dale on the right-wing. Richards, Ainley and Dale all dropped down to the substitutes bench with Adebisi not making the matchday 18. 3 former Alex players were in the matchday 18 for Bradford with Kelvin Mellor and Clayton Donaldson both starting and Callum Cooke on the bench.
The opening chance of the game came in the 7th minute with Perry Ng crossing from the right with Kirk curling the ball wide of the post before Paul Green had an effort saved by Richard O’Donnell in the visitors’ goal. Bradford would take the lead in the 32nd minute with Jamie Devitt having a strike from distance which was tipped onto the crossbar by Jaaskelainen with Vaughan heading home from close range before Kirk levelled the scoreline 3 minutes before the break after being put through on the Alex left with him slotting the ball past O’Donnell into the bottom corner.
Into the second half where the words of Artell were still ringing in the ears of those in red with Kirk forcing O’Donnell to tip the ball over for the first of 5 corners back-to-back, pinning City into their own penalty area. They would make the pressure pay off on the hour-mark with Perry Ng advancing down the right with his pass finding Lowery, who shifted the ball onto his left foot to finish from the edge of the area. Despite late pressure from the Bantams, Crewe would hold on to claim all 3 points.
Crewe are back in action on Tuesday night with Burton Albion arriving in the first group game in the EFL Trophy before we travel to Grimsby Town next Saturday.
What can we make of the game?
Whilst yesterday wasn’t the best performance that we’ll see this season, you have to notice that we have come from behind in 3 matches already this season and, almost just as importantly, managed to hold on to all 3 points despite being under pressure at the end of the game.
Tom Lowery might as well just keep the Man of the Match award until he leaves the club as he keeps getting better with each game that he plays and if he carries on playing like this then it’s going to be hard to keep hold of him beyond this time next year.
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
31/08/2019 4:00 pm
Attendance: 4459
Referee: Darren Handley
| Crewe Alexandra | Bradford City | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kirk, Lowery | Vaughan | ||||||
| Jaaskelainen | O'Donnell | ||||||
| Ng | A. O'Connor | ||||||
| Lancashire | P. O'Connor | ||||||
| Nolan | Richards-Everton | ||||||
| Pickering | Mellor | ||||||
| Lowery | Akpan | ||||||
| Wintle | Devitt | 81 | |||||
| Green | Palmer | 62 | |||||
| Powell | 69 | Wood | 62 | ||||
| Porter | 83 | Donaldson | |||||
| Kirk | Vaughan | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Richards | Hornby | ||||||
| Jones | Pritchard | 62 | |||||
| Ainley | Gibson | 81 | |||||
| Finney | Anderson | ||||||
| Hunt | Patrick | ||||||
| Anene | 83 | Devine | |||||
| Dale | 69 | Cooke | 62 | ||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 17 | Goal attempts | 14 |
| 5 | On Target | 2 |
| 12 | Corners | 5 |
| 16 | Fouls | 12 |
| 4 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 51 | % | 49 |