Captain Limps Off In Stalemate

An injury to captain Luke Offord damped the mood following a goalless draw between Crewe Alexandra and Harrogate Town at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday.

Manager Lee Bell named an unchanged team from Tuesday’s 3-1 win at Stockport County with Harrogate also naming an unchanged team despite their 9-2 defeat at Mansfield Town on Tuesday as manager Simon Weaver was looking for a reaction from that game.

The game’s opening chance came in the 3rd minute as Matt Daly raced through behind the Alex defence with Mickey Demetriou’s challenge forcing him to shoot wide before loan midfielder Josh Austerfield had an effort blocked as he looked to recreate his goal from midweek.

The Alex would lose Offord to an ankle injury at the half-hour mark (Ryan Cooney replaced him) with the substitute’s cross from the right headed wide of the target by Courtney Baker-Richardson in a first-half that lacked goalmouth action at either end. A double change at the break saw Lewis Billington and Aaron Rowe replaced by Shilow Tracey and Charlie Kirk, the Alex pressure continued with Rio Adebisi’s cross headed wide by CBR before the forward headed a cross from Kirk over the bar.

The two would combine again on the hour with Kirk’s quickly taken corner to Adebisi saw the full-back cross for Baker-Richardson to hit the bar before Tracey had an effort saved by James Belshaw in the visitors’ goal. Kirk thought he’d won it in stoppage time but was denied by a great save from Belshaw.

The next couple of games see the Alex travelling to Notts County next Saturday before hosting Morecambe the following Saturday.

Final Thoughts:

It was an alright performance against a team that was determined to avoid a repeat of their midweek embarrassment, a result that Weaver will no doubt be delighted with, but lacked the creativity and a little bit of good fortune with the effort that came back off the crossbar.