Goals from Dan Agyei and Kelvin Mellor helped Crewe Alexandra to a comfortable home win against Harrogate Town at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday and to back-to-back wins to start the season – the first time that feat has been achieved since the 94/95 season. Substitute Courtney Baker-Richardson would add a third in the final 15 minutes as the Alex moved up to second in the table.
Manager Alex Morris named an unchanged team from last Saturday’s 2-1 win at Rochdale while the bench was also unchanged from that game.
Despite having decent possession for the majority of the first half, it took until the final few minutes of the half for the Alex to take the lead as Lachlan Brook’s corner found the unmarked Zac Williams at the back post whose return was hit into the ground, allowing Agyei to score a header from close range. While the visitors were trying to work out what had happened, the Railwaymen would have a corner from the other side with Callum Ainley getting his third assist of the season already with Mellor towering over the Harrogate defender to mark his Gresty Road return with a goal.
Charlie Colkett would come on after an hour for his debut for Zac Williams (a move that saw Tariq Uwakwe move to left-back) before Baker-Richardson would replace Brook (with Agyei moving to the right) nearly 10 minutes later. CBR would add the third of the afternoon after his shot from the edge of the area was saved by Pete Jameson only for the forward to be first to the rebound to took home from 6 yards out. Regan Griffiths, Khanya Leshabela and Oli Finney would all come on with 6 minutes to play replacing Ainley, Agyei and Bassala Sambou.
The next games for the Alex see a trip to Grimsby Town on Tuesday in the Carabao Cup before returning to league action at Salford City next Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
It’s another 3 points towards the first target of keeping ourselves in the Football League (not that I think that we should be aiming that low as a club).
Another decent game from most of the summer signings and a good work rate from Sambou, including getting back and helping Williams by making tackles, even if he was lacking the end product from an attacking point of view.
As for the game in the cup on Tuesday, I’d like to see a few of those who haven’t had many minutes yet (Colkett, Sass-Davies, CBR, Leshabela) get a start on a night where winning would be a bonus.
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
6/08/2022 4:00 pm
Attendance: 3881
Referee: Declan Bourne
| Crewe Alexandra | Harrogate Town | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agyei, Mellor, Baker-Richardson | |||||||
| Okonkwo | Jameson | ||||||
| Mellor | Welch-Hayes | ||||||
| Offord | Burrell | ||||||
| McDonald | Mattock | ||||||
| Williams | 61 | Thomson | |||||
| Thomas | Pattison | ||||||
| Uwakwe | Austerfield | 68 | |||||
| Brook | 68 | Headley | |||||
| Ainley | 84 | Dooley | |||||
| Sambou | 84 | Daly | |||||
| Agyei | 84 | Armstrong | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Booth | Oxley | ||||||
| Baker-Richardson | 68 | Richards | |||||
| Griffiths | 84 | Muldoon | 68 | ||||
| O. Finney | 84 | Ferugson | |||||
| Colkett | 61 | Horbury | |||||
| Leshabela | 84 | Ilesanmi | |||||
| Sass-Davies | |||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 12 | Goal attempts | 10 |
| 4 | On Target | 5 |
| 5 | Corners | 1 |
| 12 | Fouls | 11 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 48 | % | 52 |