A goal in each half from Ben Whitfield helped Barrow to their seventh straight league win in the league against Crewe Alexandra at the Alexandra Stadium last night.
Manager Lee Bell made 4 changes from last Saturday’s 3-3 home draw against Accrington Stanley as Tom Booth (starting his first league game of the season), Zac Williams, Ryan Cooney and Courtney Baker-Richardson all coming in with Harvey Davies dropping to the bench, Luke Offord suspended after his red card last Saturday while Connor O’Riordan and Joe White were both ill. Former Alex captain George Ray started for the visitors.
The game’s opening chance came in the 17th minute with Rio Adebisi’s free-kick going past the far post before the opening goal of the game came 11 minutes later as a deflected deep ball from David Worrall found Whitfield to score on the turn from 15 yards out.
The break saw Cooney replaced by scholar Calum Agius before the visitors doubled their lead from the penalty spot on 50 minutes, Ray went down under minimal contact from Elliott Nevitt, with Garner scoring the pen off the inside of the post despite Booth going the right way. That 2-goal lead would last just 8 minutes with Nevitt heading in an inswinging corner from Adebisi from close range before a penalty claim for a potential penalty on Baker-Richardson was waved away by referee Alan Young minutes later.
Barrow would regain the 2-goal lead in the 76th minute after a quick throw-in was taken to sub Robbie Gotts with his cross headed in by Whitfield before scholar Nathan Robinson was given a league debut for the final 10 minutes as part of the back 3 as he replaced Conor Thomas with Lewis Billington moving into midfield.
The next couple of games see the Alex travel to Walsall on Boxing Day before heading to Newport County next Friday.
Final Thoughts:
It was another disappointing performance but one that wasn’t a surprise with the lack of senior players available with all of the injuries, Offord’s suspension and the illness running through the camp.
Mr Young spolit the game a little with the decisions that he made (though the assistant should have helped with flagging for the offside against Ray as he won the penalty) but the number of cards that he showed shouldn’t have been a surprise going off his games so far this season:
Should have seen this referee performance coming to be fair… #crewealex pic.twitter.com/gXxFTeCS4i
— Joe C (@JoeCos93) December 22, 2023
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
22/12/2023 8:45 pm
Attendance: 7646
Referee: Alan Young
| Crewe Alexandra | Barrow | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nevitt | Whitfield (2), Garner | ||||||
| Booth | Farman | ||||||
| Billington | Chester | ||||||
| Demetriou | Ray | ||||||
| Williams | Canavan | ||||||
| Cooney | 46 | Worrall | |||||
| Thomas | Spence | 60 | |||||
| Adebisi | White | 69 | |||||
| Rowe | Foley | ||||||
| Tracey | Newby | ||||||
| Baker-Richardson | Garner | 69 | |||||
| Nevitt | Whitfield | 79 | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Davies | Lillis | ||||||
| Kempster-Down | Campbell | 69 | |||||
| Agius | 46 | Gotts | 60 | ||||
| Nolan | Telford | ||||||
| Robinson | 80 | Acquah | 69 | ||||
| Allport | Feely | 79 | |||||
| Sant | |||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 7 | Goal attempts | 11 |
| 3 | On Target | 6 |
| 5 | Corners | 2 |
| 12 | Fouls | 10 |
| 4 | Yellow Cards | 4 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 62 | % | 38 |