Second half goals from Charlie Kirk and Eddie Nolan gave Crewe Alexandra their fifth win in 7 games against play-off contending Colchester United at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday afternoon.
Manager David Artell made one change from last Saturday’s win at home at MK Dons with Paul Green coming in for the injured James Jones in central midfield.
The opening opportunity came in the opening few minutes as Callum Ainley was played in down the Alex right with his effort saved comfortably by Rene Gilmartin before it was the visitors who took the lead on 10 minutes. A Harry Pickering throw-in was taken to Green with the experienced midfielder finding Sammy Szmodics with a short back-pass with the Colchester midfielder finishing from just inside the area.
They could have extended the lead on 24 minutes with a free-kick whipped in from the right which saw striker Mickael Mandron volley just wide on the turn before a couple of Alex chances from Green could have seen the scores level at the break.
It didn’t take too long for the Alex to level as Perry Ng’s cross found Kirk at the back post to head home from inside the 6-yard box before substitute Tom Lowery won a corner after a nice bit of play just after coming on with 5 minutes to play. After the resulting corner from Pickering was cleared out for a second time, it fell to Green with the midfielder finding Nolan for another header scored inside the 6-yard area.
We have Carlisle United next Saturday at the Alexandra Stadium before a trip to Macclesfield Town in a fortnight in a Cheshire derby.
What have we learnt from this game?
It was another game that saw a fight-back during the second half that hasn’t been happening in previous seasons. Starting with the first half, we were giving the ball away far too often in the final third so we couldn’t get too much rhythm in our play going forward although we’d not had too many chances to defend against, the goal and Mandron’s volley aside, even though it felt like Colchester had quite a bit of the play.
Onto the second period and it was clear that Artell and Lunt had spoken to the players at the break and almost calmed them down a little which saw us rewarded with the goal early in the half. We need to get Kirk and Bowery into the area supporting Porter when the ball is out on the other side and the goal was a result of that.
Can we make the playoffs? I’m still a little unsure about it with the current squad as it is at the minute because of the lack of depth in certain areas but I’m happy if I get to be proven wrong come May. Either way if we play like we have done over the last few weeks more often than not until the end of the season then we may have to start saving up for a Wembley trip.
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
26/01/2019 4:00 pm
Attendance: 3306
Referee: Peter Wright
| Crewe Alexandra | Colchester United | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kirk, Nolan | Szmodics | ||||||
| Garratt | Gilmartin | ||||||
| Ng | Jackson | ||||||
| Ray | Eastman | ||||||
| Nolan | Prosser | ||||||
| Pickering | Vincent-Young | ||||||
| Ainley | 86 | Pell | |||||
| Green | Lapslie | 89 | |||||
| Wintle | Senior | ||||||
| Bowery | Szmodics | ||||||
| Porter | Nouble | ||||||
| Kirk | 90 | Mandron | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Richards | Barnes | ||||||
| Miller | Kent | ||||||
| Nicholls | Dickenson | ||||||
| Lowery | Comley | ||||||
| Dale | Wright | ||||||
| Finney | Ogedi-Uzokwe | ||||||
| Hunt | Dunne | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 11 | Goal attempts | 6 |
| 5 | On Target | 1 |
| 6 | Corners | 5 |
| 13 | Fouls | 12 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 49 | % | 51 |