Ben Garrity’s first-half goal was enough for Port Vale to defeat Crewe Alexandra for the second straight Tuesday night in the opening EFL Trophy game – Wrexham defeated Newcastle United’s Under-21s 1-0 in the other game in the group.
Manager Lee Bell made 7 changes from Saturday’s 3-1 home win against MK Dons as Tom Booth, Lewis Billington, Owen Lunt, Joe White, Charlie Finney, Aaron Rowe and Elliot Nevitt all came into the team as Harvey Davies, Luke Offord, Courtney Baker-Richardson all dropped down to the bench while Rio Adebisi, Chris Long, Joel Tabiner and Jack Powell are not involved. Second-year scholars Lewis Nolan and Nathan Robinson both made the first-team bench for the first time while former Alex loanee Conor Grant started for the hosts.
The opening chance of the game went the hosts’ way in the 7th minute with James Plant having his effort saved by Booth before the first Alex chance was slashed wide 7 minutes later by Ryan Cooney. The goal came on 18 minutes as Garrity volleyed in from Tom Sang’s cross.
A double change at half-time saw Offord and Tracey replace Mickey Demetriou and Nevitt with another double on the hour-mark which saw Baker-Richardson and Calum Agius, the latter on for his debut, before Cooney was booked midway through the second half. Vale sub Baylee Dipepa would have an effort saved well by Booth on 71 minutes before Tracey was replaced with 10 to play by Nolan, on for his debut. Agius would be played through by Offord before firing over with the Welshman also missing the target from CBR’s nod down. Cooney would be sent off in the final minute of stoppage time as he and sub Mitch Clark were both booked.
The next couple of games see the Alex returning to league action at Forest Green Rovers on Saturday before travelling to AFC Wimbledon the following Saturday.
Final Thoughts:
Good to see some of the fringe players get some much-needed minutes in this game although the injury for Tracey is the main disappointment from the game, especially as Bell has hinted that he could miss a few weeks as a minimum – making a small group number-wise even smaller (though Cooney’s suspension will only take place in the next group game rather than at the weekend).
Vale Park
EFL Trophy
5/09/2023 8:45 pm
Attendance: 2846
Referee: Steven Copeland
| Port Vale | Crewe Alexandra | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garrity | |||||||
| Leutwiler | Booth | ||||||
| Cass | 64 | Billington | |||||
| Balmer | 46 | O'Riordan | |||||
| Shorrock | Demetriou | 46 | |||||
| Lang | Cooney | ||||||
| Walters | Lunt | ||||||
| Lowe | Thomas | ||||||
| Grant | 90 | White | 60 | ||||
| Garrity | Finney | ||||||
| Loft | 64 | Nevitt | 46 | ||||
| Plant | 72 | Rowe | 60 | ||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Ripley | Davies | ||||||
| Clark | 72 | Offord | 46 | ||||
| Ojo | 64 | Baker-Richardson | 60 | ||||
| Iacovitti | 46 | Tracey | on 46, off 80 | ||||
| Massey | Agius | 60 | |||||
| Dipepa | 64 | Nolan | 80 | ||||
| Brazier | 90 | Robinson | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 10 | Goal attempts | 6 |
| 4 | On Target | 1 |
| 6 | Corners | 2 |
| 7 | Fouls | 13 |
| 3 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 1 |
| 51 | % | 49 |