Goals from Elliott Nevitt and substitute Courtney Baker-Richardson saw Crewe Alexandra defeat Swindon Town at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday.
Manager Lee Bell made 1 change from last Saturday’s 1-0 win at Mansfield Town as Nevitt replaced Baker-Richardson in the starting eleven, the latter dropping down to the bench where he was joined by new signing Lewis Leigh (who signed on loan from Preston earlier in the week).
The game’s opening chance came in the 2nd minute with Nevitt finding Joe White who couldn’t repeat the goal he scored last week, cutting in from the right but he couldn’t hit the target before the Alex took the lead as Aaron Rowe’s right-sided cross was converted by Nevitt with a first-time finish from 12 yards out. The visitors would level on the half-hour as Shade’s right-sided cross would be finished by Charlie Austin at the second attempt with Chris Long having a long-range shot that would graze the crossbar 7 minutes after the break.
After a double change that saw White (on his final appearance in this loan spell before he returns to Newcastle United) and Long replaced by CBR and Shilow Tracey, it would see the Alex re-take the lead as a Lewis Billington ball was dinked into Conor Thomas with his shot blocked into the path of Baker-Richardson who would backheel the ball into the net from 4 yards out.
The next couple of games see the Alex travelling to Barrow next Saturday before playing away at Morecambe the following Tuesday.
Final Thoughts:
We started the game well with a quick start with the early White chance and Nev’s goal but we seemed to go off the boil and allow Swindon back into the game with Austin’s goal (the GRE was adamant that he handled the ball – I’m at the other end of the ground so couldn’t tell).
Whilst it wasn’t his best game, White returning to Newcastle will leave a hole in the squad (at least until Tabiner returns) and hopefully, we’ll either see him return later in the month or someone similar join ahead of the window shutting at the end of the month.
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
13/01/2024 4:00 pm
Attendance: 4597
Referee: Leigh Doughty
| Crewe Alexandra | Swindon Town | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nevitt, Baker-Richardson | Austin | ||||||
| Booth | Bycroft | ||||||
| Billington | Godwin-Malife | ||||||
| O'Riordan | Brewitt | 46 | |||||
| Demetriou | Minturn | ||||||
| Adebisi | Shade | ||||||
| Offord | Kinsella | ||||||
| Thomas | Khan | 75 | |||||
| Rowe | 84 | Kokolo | |||||
| White | 69 | Devoy | 68 | ||||
| Long | 69 | Glatzel | 68 | ||||
| Nevitt | Austin | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Davies | Ward | ||||||
| Cooney | Blake-Tracy | 46 | |||||
| Baker-Richardson | 69 | McEachran | 75 | ||||
| Tracey | 69 | Hepburn-Murphy | 68 | ||||
| Leigh | 84 | Cain | 68 | ||||
| Colkett | Dworzak | ||||||
| Kempster-Down | Keyes | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 11 | Goal attempts | 11 |
| 5 | On Target | 3 |
| 3 | Corners | 8 |
| 7 | Fouls | 9 |
| 3 | Yellow Cards | 3 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 52 | % | 48 |