Crewe Alex: Scott’s Half Season Review

So halfway through the season, we languish in 16th place in League Two and are currently experiencing a run of 2 wins in 18 games.

For me, this is unacceptable. We’ve invested heavily into the playing squad this season and all of our squad have experienced indifferent form.

Ryan Lowe has been poor since the end of September, personally I’d carry him to Bury given their recent offer for his services and replace him with a target man. I believe we’ve been linked with Stoke forward Julien Ngoy who would add some height to our pint-sized forward line and would almost certainly get the best out of Chris Dagnall.

Danny Hollands looks set to leave the club after Steve Davis put in an offer to Scunthorpe for Jamie Ness. I think that this is an awful decision. Hollands is an outstanding tackler and has given 100% in every game he’s played. I don’t think Ness would fit our current squad because he hasn’t got Anthony Grant alongside him doing the donkey work and he lacks match fitness.

The diagnosis for the squad’s current struggles is simple: poor management, poor tactics and a woeful defence that seems to leak goals for fun yet escape blame each season. Now Zoumana Bakayogo and Ollie Turton have been solid when they’ve played at fullback this season but our centre halves have been error prone. For what it’s worth, I’d keep Jon Guthrie and see what he can do alongside a capable defender with experience. The overpaid trio of Harry Davis, George Ray and Ben Nugent need to face the axe this May to free up wages for value-for-money defensive reinforcements.

Another man who needs to face the axe is Steve Davis. A promising start to the season saw us beat Stevenage on opening day, take a credible draw with Portsmouth and gain 3 big wins against Doncaster, Exeter and Grimsby respectively. However, Davis can’t motivate us to play smaller opposition. Lethargic home performances against Crawley and Yeovil are unacceptable if we want to be challenging for promotion. 2 wins in 18 for a club just relegated from League One to this level is cause for concern, and any manager at any other club with such a record would almost certainly have been sacked by now.

With 24 games of the season remaining, we need to snap out of this bad run of form before we experience a fourth successive relegation battle under Steve Davis. I feel the only way for us to do that is by changing the manager. Given our bad form since September, I would take 22nd in the league right now if it meant sacking Steve Davis, releasing the deadwood and rebuilding the side with a winning mentality for next season.

However, given the Crewe board’s apparent phobia of change, I expect to be ranting about Steve Davis dragging us into a fifth successive relegation battle this time next season!