A goal in each half from defender Ross Sykes helped Accrington Stanley to defeat Crewe Alexandra at the Crown Ground yesterday. Tommy Leigh and Sean McConville would also score for the hosts while Dan Agyei would get a consolation in stoppage-time, his first for the Alex.
Manager David Artell made six changes from Tuesday’s 4-1 home defeat against Plymouth Argyle with Dave Richards returning in goal with defenders Travis Johnson and Connor O’Riordan, midfielders Regan Griffiths and Scott Robertson and forward Chris Porter the other changes as the Alex changed back to the 5-3-2 formation.
The opening chance came in the 6th minute with Ethan Hamilton firing over the bar before the opening goal came 6 minutes later with Sykes heading home a McConville corner. Scott Robertson would have the first Alex chance of the game midway through the first half but would skew it wide before former Alex loanee Michael Nottingham headed wide another McConville set-piece.
The second goal came 6 minutes after the break with Leigh would head home from another set-piece from the forward before Sykes would get his second of the afternoon on the hour-mark through another header. McConville, clearly bored of just setting goals up, added the fourth in the 64th minute with a free-kick before the Alex consolation would come in the third minute of stoppage-time, a mix-up between goalkeeper Toby Savin and defender Yeboah Amankwah allowing Agyei to score from close-range.
Our next couple of games sees the Alex travel to Wigan Athletic on Tuesday before hosting Portsmouth next Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
It was another game that saw us bullied by set-pieces (against a team that had plenty of 6-footers in their team while we would have probably our ‘smallest’ team of the season) and outshone in open play as well, a common theme for games this season.
It’s all about making sure that recruitment (and preparation) for next season starts now ahead of what is almost certainly League 2 football.