Crewe Alexandra picked up their first point on the road with a goal-less draw at Cheltenham Town’s Whaddon Road yesterday afternoon.
Manager David Artell made 4 changes from the EFL Trophy game at Tranmere 12 days ago as Corey Whelan came in to make his debut for fellow loanee Kevin O’Connor at the back (Nicky Hunt switching across to left-back), Ryan Wintle came into central midfield for Tom Lowery, Charlie Kirk came in on the left-wing and Jordan Bowery up front as they replaced strikers Chris Porter and Shaun Miller allowing Alex Nicholls to move back up top. The 4 that dropped out went to the bench alongside Michael Raynes, Ollie Finney and substitute keeper Dave Richards.
In a game with few chances, Will Boyle had his header tipped over by Ben Garratt for the hosts whilst Perry Ng had his effort saved by Scott Flinders from a James Jones free-kick before chances for defenders Whelan and George Ray couldn’t see the Alex in front before the break.
Into the second half where Ryan Broom shot from the edge of the area before the midfielder had another effort saved well by Garratt. Nicholls was next to have a shot but it trickled past the post from Jones’ centre before Tyrone Barnett was denied by a block on the goal-line by an Alex defender on the hour-mark.
More chances in the final quarter of the game as substitute Chris Porter headed wide whilst Nigel Atangana tried to bend one past Garratt but couldn’t get the finish he was after. Crewe almost took all 3 points in stoppage-time as Kirk was allowed to run half the length of the pitch before his cross found Ryan Wintle with Flinders making a stunning save as both keepers were on top all afternoon.
The next fixture sees a local derby against Port Vale next Saturday at the Alexandra Stadium.
Whaddon Road
League 2
15/09/2018 3:00 pm
Referee: Brett Huxtable
Cheltenham Town | Crewe Alexandra | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Flinders | Garratt | ||||||
Forster | Whelan | ||||||
Mullins | Ng | ||||||
Boyle | Ray | ||||||
Alcock | 55 | Hunt | |||||
Atangana | Ainley | 80 | |||||
Broom | Wintle | ||||||
Dawson | Jones | ||||||
Maddox | Kirk | ||||||
Mooney | 64 | Bowery | |||||
Barnett | 78 | Nicholls | 64 | ||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
Lovett | Richards | ||||||
Thomas | Raynes | ||||||
Duku | 78 | Porter | 64 | ||||
Lloyd | Miller | ||||||
Baldwin | 55 | Lowery | |||||
Jones | 64 | Finney | |||||
Clements | O'Connor |
Game Statistics |
||
17 | Goal attempts | 8 |
5 | On Target | 2 |
11 | Corners | 3 |
9 | Fouls | 12 |
2 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
0 | Red Cards | 0 |
50 | % | 50 |