Olly Lancashire’s second-half diving header saw Crewe Alexandra beat Bristol Rovers at the Alexandra Stadium last night after Charlie Kirk and Ryan Wintle gave the hosts a 2-goal lead before captain Max Ehmer and Luke McCormick leveled the score in the first 6 minutes after the break.
Manager David Artell made 2 changes from Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Plymouth Argyle as Tom Lowery replaced Luke Murphy in midfield while Chris Porter replaced Mika Mandron up front as both players would drop down to the bench.
The opening chance and goal of the game came in the 4th minute as a corner was played short between Harry Pickering, Kirk and Tom Lowery saw the miniature magician find Kirk who placed the ball into the bottom corner before the lead was doubled midway through the half. Another move down the left saw Pickering and Kirk combine with Finney with the ball pulled back to Wintle whose deflected effort beat Joe Day.
The Gas got back into the game in the opening minute after the break as a corner from Zain Westbrooke was flicked on to Ehmer to turn in from close-range at the back post before Luke McCormick, on loan from Chelsea, curled a free-kick from just outside the penalty area into the top corner. The Alex retook the lead on 56 minutes as a Lowery free-kick was headed home by Lancashire from 6-yards out.
The next games for the Alex see us host AFC Wimbledon on Saturday before a trip to Gillingham next Tuesday.
What can we take out of this game?
Another game where we didn’t play quite at our best but still got a positive result but good to see all 3 players that scored on the scoresheet and more importantly a couple of goals from set-pieces.
Both centre-backs played well against a tough forward to play against, with Beckles slightly the better of the two, but it’s a really good partnership in this league – just hope that the injuries to the 2 full-backs that started the game aren’t out for too long.