A brace from Connor O’Riordan helped Crewe Alexandra to defeat Doncaster Rovers at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday.
Manager Lee Bell made 8 changes from Tuesday’s 2-1 home win against Newcastle United’s Under-21s as Harvey Davies, Luke Offord, O’Riordan, Mickey Demetriou, Rio Adebisi, Joe White, Shilow Tracey and Courtney Baker-Richardson all came into the team for Tom Booth, Lewis Billington, Zak Kempster-Down, Charlie Colkett, Charlie Agius and Charlie Finney, who all drop down to the bench, as well as Connor Evans (who has re-joined Marine on loan for at least a month after a loan spell there last season) and Nathan Robinson.
The game’s opening chance came in the 10th minute as wing-back James Maxwell headed over Zain Westbrooke’s right-sided cross from 6 yards out before the game’s opening goal came 6 minutes later as Faal fired the ball past Harvey Davies into the bottom corner.
The Alex equaliser came just before the half-hour as Ryan Cooney’s ball was fired into Aaron Rowe with his touch sending the ball into Offord’s path, the skipper firing the ball through the legs of keeper Louis Jones before they would take the lead just before the break as a Demetriou long-throw wasn’t dealt with as O’Riordan scored from a tight angle.
The visitors would level 12 minutes after the break with Joe Ironside heading in a left-sided cross from Maxwell before the winner came a couple of minutes into stoppage-time as Adebisi’s low cross was turned in from close range by Republic of Ireland Under-21 international O’Riordan from close range.
The next couple of games see the Alex travelling to Sutton United on Tuesday before hosting Bristol Rovers in the FA Cup 2nd Round next Saturday.
Final Thoughts:
What is there left to say about this side? This time it was a result where we were nowhere near our best but dug in and got the result without playing well, particularly in the second half.
Doncaster deserved to get at least one point if not all three but how big could these points come May?
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
25/11/2023 4:00 pm
Attendance: 4263
Referee: Martin Coy
| Crewe Alexandra | Doncaster Rovers | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offord, O'Riordan (2) | Faal, Ironside | ||||||
| Davies | Jones | ||||||
| Offord | Bailey | ||||||
| O'Riordan | Anderson | ||||||
| Demetriou | Senior | ||||||
| Cooney | Nixon | ||||||
| Thomas | Close | ||||||
| White | Westbrooke | 82 | |||||
| Adebisi | Molyneux | 90 | |||||
| Tracey | Maxwell | 82 | |||||
| Baker-Richardson | 90 | Ironside | |||||
| Rowe | 62 | Faal | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Booth | Lawlor | ||||||
| Colkett | Wood | ||||||
| Nevitt | 62 | Broadbent | 82 | ||||
| Finney | 90 | Rowe | 82 | ||||
| Billington | Biggins | 90 | |||||
| Kempster-Down | Hurst | ||||||
| Agius | Goodman | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 19 | Goal attempts | 22 |
| 9 | On Target | 6 |
| 8 | Corners | 8 |
| 10 | Fouls | 14 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 50 | % | 50 |