Defender Scores Fifth Of Season As Tranmere See Double Red

Goals from Mickey Demetriou and Chris Long saw Crewe Alexandra defeat 9-man Tranmere Rovers at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday.

Manager Lee Bell made 9 changes from Tuesday’s 3-0 home defeat against Wrexham in the EFL Trophy as Harvey Davies, Ryan Cooney, Luke Offord, Demetriou, Rio Adebisi, Jack Powell, Joel Tabiner, Shilow Tracey, Long and Courtney Baker-Richardson came into the team as Tom Booth, Lewis Billington, Charlie Colkett, Charlie Finney, Owen Lunt, Elliott Nevitt and Aaron Rowe dropping down to the bench with Calum Agius and Zac Williams (who pulled out during the warm-up allowing Cooney to start) not involved. Former Alex midfielder Brad Walker was on the visitors’ bench.

The game’s opening chance and goal came in the 11th minute as a free-kick was taken short to Powell whose cross was headed in by Demetriou before White would fire over from a Tracey pull-back 6 minutes later. Tranmere’s best chance of the first half came midway through as Morris was denied by a save by Davies down to his right.

The first red came 3 minutes after the break as goalkeeper Luke McGee handled Long’s chip a few yards outside the area with the Alex’s second goal coming from the resulting free-kick, Powell laying the ball off for Long to strike into the bottom corner past substitute keeper Joe Murphy from just outside the area. Connor Jennings would clip the top of the bar in the 67th minute before Tom Davies would be sent off for two bookings for the visitors in stoppage time, first for a foul on substitute Lunt before picking up his second a few minutes later for a mistimed tackle.

The next couple of games sees the Alex travel to Crawley Town next Saturday before hosting Stockport County the following Tuesday.

Final Thoughts:

This was another performance that saw us better than the opponents. However, that was a low bar as Tranmere were really poor with 11 men but played better with the numbers disadvantage – just a shame that the visitors would resort to trying to put in dangerous tackles late in the game.

Crewe Alexandra				Tranmere Rovers
Demetriou, Long
Davies				McGee
Cooney				O'Connor
Offord				Davies
Demetriou				Yarney
Adebisi			67	Wood
Powell				Jennings
Tabiner				Hendry
Tracey			90	Morris			50
White			71	Saunders
Long			71	Jolley			67
Baker-Richardson				Hawkes			85
Substitutes
Booth				Murphy			50
Colkett				Walker
Lunt			90	Dennis			67
Nevitt			71	Taylor
Rowe			71	Apter			85
Finney			67	Belebouan
Billington				Starbuck

Game Statistics
16	Goal attempts	13
4	On Target	3
10	Corners	4
7	Fouls	10
2	Yellow Cards	1
0	Red Cards	2
56	%	44