Crewe Alexandra missed the opportunity to move to the top of the league after a draw at third-bottom Morecambe’s Globe Arena yesterday. Perry Ng’s opened the scoring in the opening minutes of the second-half before Aaron Wildig’s goal midway through the second-half would get the hosts a point, despite a late red card for Shrimps midfielder Adam Phillips.
Manager David Artell named an unchanged team from last Saturday’s 2-0 home win against Macclesfield Town as well as the same bench.
The opening chance of the game came in the second minute with Charlie Kirk curling the ball wide of the goal before the first chance for the hosts came 5 minutes later with Wildig firing over from the edge of the area. Chris Porter would have an effort cleared off the line on 17 minutes before Jaaskelainen would make 2 decent saves in 4 minutes from Wildig twice.
Michael Nottingham would have another effort cleared off the line before Jordan Slew would be denied by Jaaskelainen on the half-hour. Ollie Finney would hit the post on 40 minutes before Ng and Kirk would have efforts that went close before the break.
The Alex would take the lead a couple of minutes after the break with a James Jones corner would be turned in at the second attempt by Ng from 6-yards out. Morecambe would hit the bar themselves just after the hour-mark from Carlos Mendes Gomes before the equaliser would come mid-way through the half from Wildig volleying in from just inside the area.
Stephen Walker would hit the post himself before he would shoot from a tight angle when he should have squared the ball for substitute Paul Green to score a simple chance. Phillips would get a straight red card in stoppage-time for a professional foul to stop an Alex break.
Our next two games see a trip to Exeter City on Tuesday night before a home game against Stevenage next Saturday.
What can we learn from this game?
It could be a case of a decent point at the end of the season after other results that happened yesterday to the teams around us. Yes, only converting 1 chance out of the 21 shots that were created is a cause for a little concern but we have played against a team that are good on their own patch that is difficult to go to and win.
The result does make Tuesday night’s game mustn’t lose even if it’s not must-win at this point in the season.