A first-half brace from Omar Bogle helped Crewe Alexandra to defeat Bromley at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday.
Manager Lee Bell made 4 changes from Wednesday’s 3-2 home win against Carlisle United as James Connolly, Jack Powell, Jack Lankester and Bogle came into the team for Joel Tabiner, Chris Long, Shilow Tracey (who all dropped down to the bench) and Zac Williams, the latter missing out due to illness.
The first chance came in the 10th minute as Max Sanders forced Grant Smith into a save in the bottom corner before the Alex took the lead just before the half-hour mark as Lankester and Sanders combined to see the former force another save from Smith with Bogle volleying in the rebound.
The lead would be doubled 3 minutes later as a free-kick was played between Jack Powell, Sanders and Lankester allowed the latter to cross for Bogle to head in from close range before the visitors halved the deficit a couple of minutes later folllowing a handball in the area, Bromley captain Michael Cheek scoring despite Filip Marschall going the right way. Lankester would make it three 7 minutes from the break as substitute Lewis Billington stole the ball on the halfway line, travelled with it before giving it to Lankester, who fired it into the bottom corner.
The first chance of the second half saw Ryan Cooney’s right-sided cross turned goalwards by Lankester with the forward’s effort going wide of the post before the visitors would be reduced to ten men 12 minutes from time as Kamarl Grant was shown two yellow cards in 4 minutes, firstly for dissent after several foul-throws then for bringing substitute Chris Long down just outside the area.
A fourth would be added by the Railwaymen 8 minutes from time as a set-piece was cleared out to Billington whose looping header was headed over Smith by Jamie Knight-Lebel, the Canadian international scoring for the second successive Sunday.
The next games for the Alex see them travelling to Swindon Town on Saturday before travelling to Morecambe the following Saturday.
Final Thoughts:
That was the best performance of the season so far without doubt, especially growing into the first half we way we did (potentially as a result of having an extra day of preparation).
Bogle and Lankester combined really well as a front pairing (along with Matus Holicek who is just getting better each game in midfield) while having Long and Tracey as options off the bench are great options to be able to rotate.
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
5/01/2025 3:00 pm
Attendance: 4462
Referee: Scott Jackson
| Crewe Alexandra | Bromley | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bogle (2), Lankester, Knight-Lebel | Cheek | ||||||
| Marschall | Smith | ||||||
| Connolly | 18 | Grant | |||||
| Knight-Lebel | Sowunmi | ||||||
| Demetriou (c) | Reynolds | 46 | |||||
| Cooney | Imray | 68 | |||||
| Powell | 78 | Arthurs | |||||
| Sanders | 58 | Thompson | |||||
| Holicek | Odutayo | ||||||
| Conway | Whitely | 83 | |||||
| Bogle | 78 | Cheek | 68 | ||||
| Lankester | 58 | Dennis | 60 | ||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Booth | Long | ||||||
| Long | 78 | Charles | |||||
| Tracey | 58 | Passley | 68 | ||||
| Tabiner | 58 | Webster | 83 | ||||
| Lunt | 78 | Amantchi | 46 | ||||
| Finney | Congreve | 60 | |||||
| Billington | 18 | Olomola | 68 | ||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 17 | Goal attempts | 8 |
| 8 | On Target | 3 |
| 2 | Corners | 7 |
| 7 | Fouls | 9 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 3 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 1 |
| 56 | % | 44 |