A disastrous first-half display saw Crewe Alexandra end their unbeaten run against Gillingham last night at the Priestfield Stadium thanks to goals from Jordan Graham, Olly Lee and Kyle Dempsey. Lee added his second in the second half with Chris Porter getting the Alex consolation.
Manager David Artell made 1 change from Saturday’s 1-1 draw against AFC Wimbledon as Travis Johnson starting at right-back in for Billy Jones with new loan midfielder Antony Evans making the substitutes’ bench. Former Alex striker Vadaine Oliver starting up front for the hosts.
The opening chance and goal of the game came in the 10th minute as Graham won a penalty after beating Johnson with the Gills winger sending Dave Richards the wrong way with the penalty before the first Alex chance came a few minutes later with Omar Beckles heading a Rio Adebisi corner straight at Jack Bonham. The second goal came 7 minutes before the break with Olly Lee converting Graham’s cross before the third was added in the final minute of the half with Dempsey finishing past Richards.
The fourth came just after the hour-mark with Olly Lee heading in from a long throw before Artell made changes with Saturday’s game in mind with Tom Lowery and Owen Dale taken off with the Alex getting a consolation goal with 10 minutes to play with substitute Evans’ deflected cross headed in by Porter.
The next games for the Alex host Ipswich Town on Saturday before a trip to Shrewsbury Town the following Tuesday.
What can we take out of this game?
It’s a first-half that will help out in the long-term for me as it highlights exactly what happens in this league if we are not up to our game at all. The young full-backs had a difficult game but it’s one that they will definitely learn from but it was magnified by other players also not playing well on the night.
Priestfield Stadium
League 1
26/01/2021 7:00 pm
Attendance: 0
Referee: Alan Young
| Gillingham | Crewe Alexandra | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graham, Lee (2), Dempsey | Porter | ||||||
| Bonham | Richards | ||||||
| Jackson | Johnson | ||||||
| Tucker | Lancashire | ||||||
| Cundy | Beckles | ||||||
| Ogilvie | Adebisi | ||||||
| Dempsey | Lowery | 62 | |||||
| Slattery | Wintle | 73 | |||||
| Graham | 90 | Finney | |||||
| Lee | 90 | Dale | 62 | ||||
| O'Connor | Porter | ||||||
| Oliver | 88 | Kirk | 78 | ||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| O'Keefe | 90 | Jaaskelainen | |||||
| Willock | Mandron | ||||||
| McKenzie | Griffiths | 78 | |||||
| Akinde | 88 | Sass-Davies | |||||
| MacDonald | 90 | Murphy | 62 | ||||
| Johnson | Walker | 62 | |||||
| Evans | 74 | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 9 | Goal attempts | 12 |
| 6 | On Target | 6 |
| 4 | Corners | 6 |
| 25 | Fouls | 10 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 34 | % | 66 |