Crewe Alexandra On This Day – August 11th

There have been four competitive fixtures on August 11th in the 25-year period, taking place in 2001, 2007, 2009 and 2012.

In the opening game of the 2001/02 season, Crewe Alexandra travelled to Blundell Park to take on Grimsby Town with Wayne Burnett scoring the only goal of the game 5 minutes after half-time.

Crewe: Bankole; Navarro, Walton, Foster, Smith; Lunt, Sorvel (Brammer 75), Charnock (Little 71), Jack; Tait (Richards 83), Grant

Grimsby: Coyne; McDermott, Willems, Beharall, Gallimore (Burnett 39); Butterfield, Campbell, Pouton, Rowan (Jeffrey 65), Groves; Jevons

In the opening game of the 2007/08 season, Crewe Alexandra hosted Brighton & Hove Albion at the Alexandra Stadium. Dean Cox gave the visitors the lead on the quarter-hour mark before Gary Roberts scored a penalty mid-way through the first period. He also scored the winner 11 minutes from time as well as Crewe picked up a rare opening day win.

Crewe: Williams; Woodards (O`Donnell 83), Baudet, McCready, Jones; Roberts (Pope 82), Cox, Schumacher, Moore; Miller, Maynard (Vaughan 24)

Brighton: Kuipers; El-Abd (Savage 81), Lynch, Butters, Mayo; Whing, Fraser (Reid 68), Hammond, Cox; Forster, Revell (Elder 83)

2 years later saw Crewe host Blackpool in the 1st Round of the League Cup. Adam Nowland gave Blackpool the lead 7 minutes after the break before Calvin Zola equalised with 17 left on the clock. Danny Nardiello scored the winner in the 79th minute.

Crewe: Legzdins; Brayford, Mitchel-King, Ada, Jones; Murphy (Donaldson 82), Bailey (Verma 46), Westwood; Moore, Zola, Grant (Elding 65)

Blackpool: Gilks; Baptiste, Edwards, Evatt, Martin; Hudson, Nowland, Clarke; Nardiello, Ormerod (Demontagnac 60), Taylor-Fletcher (Almond 70)

The final game of this round-up saw us host Hartlepool United in the 1st Round of the League Cup. AJ Leitch-Smith opened the scoring in the 7th minute before Max Clayton added a second 6 minutes later. Mathias Pogba and Clayton added more goals in the first half before Pogba scored in the 90th minute to wrap up the game.

Crewe: Martin; Davis, Ray, Dugdale, Robertson; Moore, Osman (Murphy 76), Westwood; Clayton (Turton 84), Leitch-Smith (Daniels 78), Pogba

Hartlepool: Flinders; Austin, Hartley, Collins, Horwood; Monkhouse, Sweeney, Walton; Franks, Howard, James (Poole 46)