Crewe Alexandra On This Day – February 28th

There have been 4 games played on February 28th this century.

The first took place in 2009 with a trip to Withdean to face Brighton & Hove Albion. Billy Jones gave the visitors a 24th minute lead from the penalty spot before goals in the final 15 minutes from Steven Schumacher, Jones and Gylfi Sigurdsson confirmed the win.

Crewe: Ruddy; Brayford, Abbey, Broomes, Baudet (O`Donnell 86), Jones; Schumacher, Woodards; Moore, Donaldson (Miller 81), Daniel (Sigurdsson 54)

Brighton: Sullivan, El-Abd, Elphick (Hinshelwood 18, Cook 46), McNulty, Whing, Birchall (Carole 51), Cox, Fraser, Jarrett, McLeod, Davies

3 years later saw a short trip to Vale Park to face Port Vale. A David Artell own goal opened the scoring in the 49th minute before Byron Moore equalised with 10 minutes to go.

Crewe: Phillips; Davis, Artell, Dugdale, Tootle; Moore, Westwood, Murphy, Shelley (Martin 89); Powell, Pearson (Miller 63)

Vale: Tomlinson, McCombe, McDonald, Taylor, Griffith, Loft, Marshall (Morsy 73), Shuker (Williamson 75), Dodds (Pope 82), Rigg, Richards

In 2015, we hosted Swindon Town at the Alexandra Stadium in a goal-less draw as both sides finished the game with 10 men after both Jack Stephens (Town) and Alan Tate (Crewe) were both sent-off for 2 yellow card offences.

Crewe: Rachubka; Turton, Ray, Tate, Davis, Leigh (Guthrie 83); Grant, Jones (Inman 90), Ness; Ajose (Stewart 90), Haber

Swindon: Foderingham, Byrne, Rossi-Branco, Stephens, Turnbull, N. Thompson, Gladwin, Luongo, L. Thompson (Kasim 73), Smith, Williams

The final game saw a trip to Victoria Park to face Hartlepool United. Lewis Alessandra gave the hosts the lead on the stroke of half-time before Padraig Amond extended the lead with 20 minutes to go. Alessandra scored his second of the game with 5 minutes to play with Nathan Thomas adding the forth in stoppage-time.

Crewe: Garratt; Turton, Ray, Nugent, Bakayago (Ng 75); Jones, Bingham, Cooke; Kiwomya (Kirk 74), Bowery, Cooper (Ainley 74)

Hartlepool: Fryer, Donnelly, Harrison, Richardson, Thomas, Walker, Woods (Hawkes 90), Alessandra, Featherstone, Oates (Hawkins 90), Rooney (Amond 61)