Crewe Alexandra would earn their first clean sheet away from home in 26 games after a battling goalless draw at Valley Parade against Bradford City yesterday afternoon.
Manager Alex Morris made one change from last Saturday’s 2-2 home draw against Northampton Town as loanee Eli King made his debut following his move on Thursday in midfield for Lachlan Brook, who misses out due to injury, with former Alex striker Vadaine Oliver on the bench for the hosts.
The hosts had the opening chance of the game in the 2nd minute with Lee Angol heading a cross over the bar before the Alex’s first opportunity came in the 17th minute as Callum Ainley’s free-kick was fired well wide. Arthur Okonkwo would deny Banks on 20 minutes before the keeper would be beaten by the same player 8 minutes later, only for the Bantams wide player to see his effort hit the crossbar.
A double change for Bradford at the break would see them continue to have the majority of the ball without either team really testing the keeper, substitute Jake Young would fire over before Kelvin Mellor’s low cross was turned behind against his former club.
The next games for the Alex see a trip to Bolton Wanderers in the EFL Trophy opening group game on Tuesday before we return to league action at home to Stevenage next Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
A decent point away from home against a team that will be looking to compete in the top 7 this season and a very un-Crewe-like performance in doing so. Okonkwo and the 2 centre-backs were solid defensively while King was able to show his class on the ball on his debut for the club.
It’ll also be good to have Bassala Sambou available starting with the Trophy game following his red card so I’d expect him to start amongst many changes on Tuesday night which will see some of the squad players involved – you’d imagine Richards in goal with a number of the youngsters that have been on the bench starting at Bolton.
Valley Parade
League 2
27/08/2022 4:00 pm
Attendance: 16541
Referee: Sunny Gill
| Bradford City | Crewe Alexandra | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis | Okonkwo | ||||||
| Halliday | Mellor | ||||||
| Platt | Offord | ||||||
| Crichlow | McDonald | ||||||
| Ridehalgh | Williams | ||||||
| East | 76 | Thomas | |||||
| Smallwood | King | ||||||
| Banks | Uwakwe | ||||||
| Chapman | 46 | Ainley | 85 | ||||
| Angol | 46 | Agyei | |||||
| Cook | 76 | Baker-Richardson | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Doyle | Richards | ||||||
| Songo'o | Griffiths | ||||||
| Odusina | O. Finney | ||||||
| Sutton | 76 | Leshabela | |||||
| Oliver | 76 | Sass-Davies | 85 | ||||
| Young | 46 | C. Finney | |||||
| Harratt | 46 | Tabiner | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 11 | Goal attempts | 8 |
| 2 | On Target | 2 |
| 4 | Corners | 6 |
| 8 | Fouls | 6 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 61 | % | 39 |