A brace from Kane Hemmings saw Crewe Alexandra win comfortably against Harrogate Town at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday, a result that saw the hosts move into the top seven.
Manager Lee Bell made 1 change from last Saturday’s 1-0 win at Accrington Stanley as Shilow Tracey came in for Max Sanders, who dropped down to the bench.
The opening chance came in the 6th minute as Joel Tabiner’s corner was headed off the crossbar by captain Mickey Demetriou before the Alex took the lead a couple of minutes later as a quickly-taken throw-in from Conor Thomas allowed Lankester to get into the penalty area with Hemmings firing the ball into the bottom corner of James Belshaw’s goal.
Lankester would create the next opportunity on 21 minutes, playing Ryan Cooney in behind the defence with the wing-back’s effort hitting the side-netting before the lead was doubled 12 minutes before the break as Hemmings and Thomas combined to see the latter find Lankester who fired his effort in from just outside the box to open his Alex account.
Max Conway would create the first chance of the second half as the left wing-back found his fellow wing-back Cooney who couldn’t keep his effort down before a couple of big saves late on from Filip Marschall saw the on-loan Villa keeper keep the score at 2-0. While the shot-stopper was keen on keeping that scoreline, his outfield teammates quickly changed it again as Belshaw saved a Tracey shot with Hemmings turning the ball in from 6 yards out.
The next games for the Alex see them travel to Newport County next Saturday before travelling to AFC Wimbledon the following Tuesday.
Final Thoughts:
That was the best performance of the season so far, especially in the first half as we overran Harrogate on the two wings (especially with the combination of Conway and Lankester on the left). However, I was a little surprised that Simon Weaver didn’t change how his team was set up throughout the game.
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
21/09/2024 3:00 pm
Attendance: 4320
Referee: Ruebyn Ricardo
| Crewe Alexandra | Harrogate Town | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hemmings (2), Lankester | |||||||
| Marschall | Belshaw (c) | ||||||
| Knight-Lebel | Sims | 60 | |||||
| Demetriou (c) | Moon | ||||||
| Williams | O'Connor | ||||||
| Cooney | Gibson | 46 | |||||
| Thomas | 83 | Taylor | |||||
| Tabiner | 87 | Cornelius | 71 | ||||
| Conway | 87 | Dooley | |||||
| Lankester | 71 | Daly | |||||
| Tracey | March | ||||||
| Hemmings | Muldoon | 60 | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Booth | Oxley | ||||||
| Sanders | 83 | Asare | |||||
| Holicek | 71 | Falkingham | |||||
| Connolly | 87 | Burrell | 46 | ||||
| Agius | Duke-McKenna | 60 | |||||
| Breckin | 87 | Folarin | 60 | ||||
| Billington | Sutton | 71 | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 19 | Goal attempts | 8 |
| 6 | On Target | 5 |
| 5 | Corners | 7 |
| 17 | Fouls | 16 |
| 3 | Yellow Cards | 3 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 54 | % | 46 |