Crewe Alexandra On This Day – March 10th

There have been four games played on March 10th this century.

2001 saw a trip to St. Andrews to face Birmingham City. Darren Purse gave the hosts the lead from the penalty spot in the 61st minute with Andrew Johnson adding a second with 13 minutes to play.

Crewe: Bankole (Ince 80); Foster, Macauley, Walton, Smith; Wright, Lunt (Charnock 80), Sorvel; Little (Ashton 70), Hulse, Rivers

Birmingham: Bennett, Eaden (Gill 62), Atherton, M. Johnson, Purse, Grainger, Hughes, O`Connor (McCarthy 46), Woodhouse, A. Johnson, Marcelo (Furlong 86)

2007 saw a trip to Gillingham`s Priestfield Stadium with Michael Flynn getting the only goal of the game on 71 minutes.

Crewe: Williams; Woodards, Baudet, O`Donnell, Moss; Roberts (Pope 86), B. Jones, Cox, Jack (Miller 73); Higdon, Lowe

Gillingham: Larrieu, Sancho, Jackman, Johnson, Bentley, Crofts, Flynn, Southall, Spiller (Chorley 85), McDonald (Ndumbu-Nsungu 85), Mulligan

2 years later saw a trip to the Bescot Stadium to face Walsall. Troy Deeney opened the scoring for the hosts in the 57th minute with substitute Steven Schumacher equalising in second-half stoppage-time.

Crewe: Ruddy; Brayford, Baudet, O`Donnell (Miller 83), McCready (Schumacher 26), Jones; Woodards, Sigurdsson; Moore (Grant 68), Zola, Donaldson

Walsall: Ince, Smith, Weston, Boertien, Palmer, Zaaboub (Shroot 76), Hughes, Mattis, Nicholls, Deeney, Ibehre

The final game was in 2012 with another trip to the Priestfield. Nick Powell scored the opening goal of the game in the 27th minute for the Alex with Jack Payne equalising 3 minutes after the break. AJ Leitch-Smith and Powell added 2 goals in as many minutes to give the visitors a 2-goal lead before Chris Whelpdale (67) and Ashley Miller (73) cancelled that lead out. Crewe substitute Max Clayton scored a stoppage-time winner to give the Railwaymen all 3 points.

Crewe: Phillips; Davis, Artell, Dugdale, Tootle; Moore, Westwood, Murphy, Shelley (Brown 75); Powell, Leitch-Smith (Clayton 77)

Gillingham: Gazzaniga, Essam, King, Jackman, Payne, C. Lee (Spiller 68), O. Lee (Kedwell 46), Montrose, Whelpdale, Oli (Evans 78), Miller