A second-half display that wouldn’t look out of place in the Premier League saw Crewe Alexandra, who trailed at the break, win comfortably in the end against Salford City at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday afternoon thanks to a brace from Tom Lowery and goals from Chris Porter and Harry Pickering.
Manager David Artell made 1 change from Tuesday’s away win against Leyton Orient with Owen Dale replacing Daniel Powell on the right-wing, the latter dropping down to the substitutes’ bench.
The first chance came in the 11th minute of the game with Lowery shooting wide from just outside the area before efforts from Pickering and Salford’s Mani Dieseruvwe in the opening 20 minutes. The opening goal of the game came 6 minutes before the break with Will Jaaskelainen dropping a low cross from wing-back Ibou Touray straight to Adam Rooney who finished from close-range.
The Alex were level 5 minutes after the break as Porter headed home a cross from Ryan Wintle before Dale hit the base of the post moments later from just inside the penalty area. Lowery would give the Alex the lead 7 minutes later with a little lob over keeper Kyle Letheren after a great piece of skill to get into the position.
Pickering would extend the lead in the 62nd minute after a corner was cleared out to him, his rocket shot found the top corner from the corner of the penalty area while the fourth came 8 minutes before the final whistle after Porter was given the ball on the right-wing with his low cross finding Charlie Kirk, who had his effort saved, with Lowery turning in the rebound.
We travel to Cheltenham Town next Saturday before hosting Exeter City the following week, both teams the other two in the top 3 of the league.
What can we learn from this game?
Never has the phrase ‘Game of Two Halves’ been more appropriate. We were sloppy (both on the ball and with the pressing) in the opening period, the goal rather summing up the first half for the Alex, before a completely different performance after the break.
Some of the moves that we were making in the second half were like watching Manchester City playing under Pep from the last 18 months, looking at the way that they attack by rotating who runs where in different phases of the attack.
Have to say that we’ll have to enjoy watching Lowery play the way he has over the course of the season so far as many more displays like yesterday will see him move on sooner rather than later.
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
21/09/2019 4:00 pm
Attendance: 4714
Referee: Will Finnie
| Crewe Alexandra | Salford City | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Porter, Lowery (2), Pickering | Rooney | ||||||
| Jaaskelainen | Letheren | ||||||
| Ng | Hughes | ||||||
| Hunt | Burgess | ||||||
| Nolan | Piergianni | 86 | |||||
| Pickering | Wiseman | ||||||
| Jones | Maynard | ||||||
| Wintle | Shelton | ||||||
| Lowery | Whitehead | 74 | |||||
| Dale | 76 | Touray | |||||
| Porter | 86 | Dieseruvwe | 67 | ||||
| Kirk | 86 | Rooney | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Richards | McFarlane | ||||||
| Lancashire | Armstrong | 67 | |||||
| Powell | 76 | Lloyd | 86 | ||||
| Ainley | 86 | Rodney | 74 | ||||
| Finney | Pond | ||||||
| Anene | 86 | Jones | |||||
| Lundstram | Doyle | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 17 | Goal attempts | 12 |
| 7 | On Target | 4 |
| 8 | Corners | 3 |
| 7 | Fouls | 9 |
| 0 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 63 | % | 37 |