Courtney Baker-Richardson’s 73rd-minute goal was enough for Crewe Alexandra to defeat Crawley Town at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday.
Manager Alex Morris made one change from Tuesday’s 1-1 draw at Hartlepool United as Bassala Sambou replaced Zac Williams (with Tariq Uwakwe moving back to left-back), the young Welshman was joined on the bench by Lachlan Brook, who returned after an injury picked up against Northampton Town last month. Former Alex defender Travis Johnson would start on the bench for the visitors.
The hosts had the opening chance of the game in the 5th minute with Callum Ainley having a shot blocked before Kelvin Mellor would head a cross from Ainley against the post 8 minutes later as the Alex had a number of half-chances but couldn’t create a good opportunity.
The second half saw the visitors have a great chance to take the lead as defender Ransom would volley wide from close range a couple of minutes after the break before Arthur Okonkwo would make a save from Dom Telford a few minutes later. Crewe took the lead following Cardiff loanee Eli King winning the ball in midfield before playing in Baker-Richardson who calmly prodded the ball with the outside of his foot into the bottom corner of Cody Addai’s goal before the keeper would deny CBR with a good save with 10 minutes to play.
The next games for the Alex see a home game against Mansfield Town next Saturday before a trip to Carlisle United the following Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
Not a great performance but taking 3 points from the game is the important thing (something that might just be the difference between a potential play-off spot or not) thanks to a well-taken finish by CBR.
Having Brook back (and as a result a stronger bench) will be good to be able to stretch the play again, like in the first few weeks of the season, giving teams different ways of opening up defences rather than being one-dimensional like we have in recent weeks.
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
17/09/2022 4:00 pm
Attendance: 3717
Referee: Rebecca Welch
| Crewe Alexandra | Crawley Town | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baker-Richardson | |||||||
| Owonkwo | Addai | ||||||
| Mellor | Franccillette | ||||||
| Offord | Ransom | ||||||
| McDonald | Craig | 84 | |||||
| Uwakwe | Fellows | ||||||
| Thomas | Tilley | 74 | |||||
| King | Hessenthaler | ||||||
| Agyei | 74 | Balagizi | |||||
| Ainley | 61 | Tsaroulla | |||||
| Sambou | Telford | 74 | |||||
| Baker-Richardson | 90 | Nichols | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Richards | Robson | ||||||
| Adebisi | Powell | 84 | |||||
| Williams | 90 | Nadesan | 74 | ||||
| Brook | 61 | Johnson | |||||
| Leshabela | 74 | Khaleel | |||||
| Sass-Davies | Ogungbo | ||||||
| C. Finney | Chukwuemeka | 74 | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 16 | Goal attempts | 8 |
| 6 | On Target | 2 |
| 9 | Corners | 2 |
| 9 | Fouls | 5 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 44 | % | 56 |