Crewe Alex: Jordan Bowery

Crewe Alexandra today officially announced the signing of Leyton Orient striker Jordan Bowery. The deal means Bowery joins The Railwaymen, on loan, until the end of the season. New manager Dave Artell’s first signing is 6’1 and quick, therefore on paper appears exactly what The Alex need. A ‘big man’ up front, who can play the role of a target man. With Chris Dagnall and Ryan Lowe being only 5’8 and 5’10 respectively, we have massively lacked any aerial domination when attacking. Though we have tried to combat the lack of height, by playing lots of short ground passes, our valiant attempts have been somewhat unsuccessful – an extremely lacklustre 25 goals in 26 league games shows that. However, with the arrival of a strong and quick and 6’1 striker, we can use what could be described as a more orthodox approach.

Despite Bowery appearing to fit the bill of what we need, on social media, it appears Jordan isn’t exactly the most highly rated player by Orient fans. In a league two group on Facebook I poised the question ‘Is Jordan Bowery any good?’, the response I got – in a word – negative. One person simply replied with ‘No.’ another had the response of ‘Nah’. However I did get a more insightful response via text of someone when it was only rumours, ‘Well that’s a shock, highly rated a few years ago and went for a lot of money. I think to Villa at the same time as Westwood’, giving a positive point about the early stages of Bowery’s career. In contrast though, he went on to add, ‘he was garbage earlier this season against us. Sure he got subbed at half time or shortly after’.

It is evident that Bowery isn’t the most well thought of player on the pitch one reason that may be down to is the fact, statistically, he isn’t the most effective or efficient player in the team. He has only scored 23 goals in 186 career appearances – as a striker, that doesn’t make for good reading. Having said that neither does 25 goals in 2,340 minutes (26 games) plus added time.
From watching footage of his overall play and goals he appears to be a carbon copy of ex-Crewe striker Marcus Haber, who we let go in the summer after the 2015/2016 campaign. Despite the fact the Canadian striker was more interested in Savile Row than Gresty Road, he certainly knew where the back of the net was. Describing himself on Instagram as ‘Lethal from six yards’ it was clear where Haber was most of a threat, often scoring what I call ‘six yard scorchers’. These six yard scorchers are more commonly known as ‘Tap-ins’. Despite Haber not being the most agile on the ball, nor the most gifted showboat, he could and would put the ball into the net for you – ultimately doing his job, fairly efficiently as well. That is what I am also hoping Jordan will achieve in his 5 or 6 months in Crewe Alexandra colours. I am not asking him to score the most memorable goals in club history, merely to get amongst the goals and help us start putting points back on the board.

The loanee is in line to make his Crewe Alexandra debut, this weekend, at the Keepmoat Stadium. His first taste of Alex action could well be being thrown in at the deep end – away to the current league leaders.