A first-half goal from Elliott Nevitt was not enough for Crewe Alexandra to get anything out of their trip to MK Dons at Stadium:MK yesterday.
Manager Lee Bell made 3 changes from Tuesday’s 1-0 home win against Sutton United with Ryan Cooney, Aaron Rowe and Elliott Nevitt came in for Joel Tabiner, Courtney Baker-Richardson and Charlie Kirk, the latter dropping down to the bench where he was joined by Max Woodcock (who was recalled from a loan spell at FC United of Manchester). Former Alex defender Anthony Stewart was not involved for the visitors.
The game’s opening chance came in the 3rd minute as Dennis went through on goal only to shoot wide of Tom Booth’s goal before the striker opened the scoring a couple of minutes later from the edge of the 6-yard box, getting on the end of left wing-back Joe Tomlinson’s low cross. The Alex would level on 19 minutes as Rowe’s deflected cross would fall to Nevitt who would beat the slipping Daniel Harvie to score into the bottom corner before the hosts regained the lead 3 minutes later as Dennis confidently finished Stephen Wearne’s through-ball.
Wearne would score the next goal on 25 minutes, getting on the end of Alex Gilbey’s pull-back, from near the penalty spot before Alex right wing-back Cooney was played in behind but had his shot saved by Michael Kelly.
Into the second half where Cooney got on the end of a Rio Adebisi cross only to be denied by Kelly again before another Adebisi cross would be fired over by Nevitt.
The next couple of games see the Alex hosting AFC Wimbledon next Saturday before travelling to Gillingham on Good Friday.
Final Thoughts:
The game played out in a way that is a little frustrating – defensively far too open whilst not taking the chances that were created apart from the goal.
Starting next week, we are going to need to find that extra something in the other Dons box (and be better defensively at the other end) if we are looking to be promoted automatically but, after the last few weeks, it looks more likely to that we’ll have to settle for a play-off spot.
Stadium:MK
League 2
16/03/2024 4:00 pm
Attendance: 6661
Referee: Paul Howard
| MK Dons | Crewe Alexandra | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dennis (2), Wearne | Nevitt | ||||||
| Kelly | Booth | ||||||
| Williams | Turns | 87 | |||||
| O'Hora | Demetriou | ||||||
| Harvie | Williams | ||||||
| Lofthouse | Cooney | 81 | |||||
| Payne | 73 | Thomas | |||||
| Bate | Austerfield | ||||||
| Tomlinson | Adebisi | ||||||
| Wearne | 62 | Tracey | |||||
| Dennis | 73 | Nevitt | |||||
| Gilbey | Rowe | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Harness | Davies | ||||||
| Norman | 73 | Leigh | 81 | ||||
| Lewington | Finney | ||||||
| Harrison | 73 | Billington | |||||
| Robson | Kirk | 87 | |||||
| Tezgel | Woodcock | ||||||
| Kemp | 62 | Agius | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 14 | Goal attempts | 15 |
| 10 | On Target | 6 |
| 4 | Corners | 3 |
| 14 | Fouls | 12 |
| 3 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 54 | % | 46 |