A brace from Shilow Tracey saw Crewe Alexandra defeat league leaders Gillingham at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday.
Manager Lee Bell made 2 changes from last Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Newport County as James Connolly and Kian Breckin came in for Max Sanders, who dropped down to the bench, and the injured Kane Hemmings. Former Alex forward Elliott Nevitt started for the visitors.
The opening chance came in the 8th minute as Nevitt would get a shot off from a Jack Nolan corner before the former Alex man headed wide 4 minutes later from a cross. The Alex would take the lead in the 17th minute as Tracey played the ball wide to Jack Lankester who beat Shadrach Ogie with his low pass converted by Tracey from 6 yards out before the forward would have an effort blocked by Glenn Morris in the visitors’ goal 8 minutes later.
Nolan would be denied at the other end on the half-hour mark by a great block from Alex captain Mickey Demetriou before Zac Williams would shoot wide as a free-kick was worked to him from outside the box. Gills’ left-back Max Clark would have an effort from distance that would go wide before the Alex doubled the lead just after the hour.
Half-time substitute Adrien Thibalt played Tracey through on the right with the forward smashing the ball from the corner of the 18-yard box into the bottom corner of Morris’ net via the inside of the post before fellow sub Matus Holicek, having only just entered the pitch, would have his effort saved by the Gills number 1.
Nevitt would be the next to have a shot on 75 minutes as his shot on the turn from just outside the D narrowly missed the target before the Alex went straight down the other end with Tracey’s low cross flicked goalwards by Thibalt with Morris making the save. Marschall would deny Nevitt as the keeper got out quickly to deny the forward in the final few minutes.
The next games for the Alex see them host Harrogate Town on Tuesday in the final EFL Trophy group stage game before returning to league action with a trip to Doncaster Rovers next Saturday.
Final Thoughts:
That was a good win against a side that had a lot of the ball but in areas of the pitch that didn’t cause the Alex much trouble as it was in front of the team.
Tracey took his second well, taking the strike on early without looking up to see what else was around him – taking out having to make a decision which seems to be a problem that he has in his game.
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
5/10/2024 3:00 pm
Attendance: 5000
Referee: Anthony Backhouse
| Crewe Alexandra | Gillingham | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tracey (2) | |||||||
| Marschall | Morris | ||||||
| Connolly | Hutton | 78 | |||||
| Knight-Lebel | Ehmer (c) | ||||||
| Demetriou (c) | Ogie | ||||||
| Cooney | Clark | ||||||
| Breckin | 86 | Little | 67 | ||||
| Tabiner | 86 | McKenzie | 46 | ||||
| Conway | 61 | Nolan | 67 | ||||
| Williams | Lapslie | 67 | |||||
| Tracey | 90 | Clarke | |||||
| Lankester | 46 | Nevitt | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Booth | Ashby-Hammond | ||||||
| Sanders | Coleman | 46 | |||||
| Holicek | 61 | Williams | |||||
| Lunt | 86 | Hawkins | 67 | ||||
| Agius | 86 | Wakeling | 67 | ||||
| Billington | 90 | Gbode | 78 | ||||
| Thibalt | 46 | Dieng | 67 | ||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 9 | Goal attempts | 18 |
| 6 | On Target | 1 |
| 3 | Corners | 5 |
| 14 | Fouls | 11 |
| 3 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 32 | % | 68 |