Following the spirited performances at home to Reading and away at Wolves, there was some sense of renewed optimism despite the 11-point gap between the Alex and safety before yesterday’s game at home to Ipswich.
Dario made two changes to Saturday’s game; Bell being replaced by Lunt – returning from suspension following his dismissal against Reading, and Higdon replaced by Gareth Taylor. Crewe adopted a 4-3-3 formation from the start with Jonah on the left and Taylor in the middle.
Crewe started well and brightly, with Steve Jones in particular looking sharp on the left side. He has been criticised recently for his effort and effectiveness, but at the start of the match he was tracking back, forcing Ipswich into rushed passes, resulting in the loss of possession. He opened the scoring on 15 minutes when a throw in deep into the Ipswich half found Luke Rodgers, who turned his man and fired across goal; Jonah stabbed home inside the 6-yard box.
Crewe found themselves 1-0 up, and deservedly so.
Until then, Crewe had been the better side, and indeed continued to be so for a short time; a free kick drifted in by Lunt was scrambled away by Ipswich as the Alex failed to get a shot on target.
The match turned four minutes after Jonah’s opener when a ball into the box was not cleared; Ipswich’s Matthew Richard lofted a ball into the box towards Alan Lee, who looked offside. He headed past Ross Turnbull to the consternation of most of the Air Products stand ? he looked clearly offside but TV replays have proved inconclusive. Regardless, Ipswich were the better side from here on in; for the rest of the half they kept possession well, without creating many chances.
The Alex had no answers; misplaced passes followed from all over the pitch, and Billy Jones was fortunate to avoid a booking following a trip from behind as Ipswich went forward. Most notably, Steve Foster was turned too easily on two occasions – his loss of form this season is very worrying.
A couple of baffling refereeing decisions followed towards the end of the half ? awarding a free kick to Ipswich following the linesman flagging for an Ipswich offside, and Walker being punished for a seemingly non-existent foul on the edge of the box; the sides went in level despite Ipswich’s domination after the equaliser.
Predictably, Crewe conceded soon after the break. Any optimism felt at the start of the match had drained away; pacy first-half substitute Dean Macdonald passed Otsemobor and curled a good shot past Turnbull from the edge of the area off the post and in.
Billy Jones was understandably booked for another foul later on, and was taken off shortly after for Luke Varney. By this point Gary Roberts, who had misplaced a series of seemingly simple passes in the second half, had also been replaced by Lee Bell.
Crewe’s best chance of the second half came when Kenny Lunt drifted a wonderful free kick into the box. It beat the Ipswich defence but Gareth Taylor couldn’t get a touch to divert it past Supple for the equaliser. A half chance for Taylor later went begging as he struck a weak shot into the arms of goalkeeper Supple with minutes remaining, and Varney headed over the bar from a corner in stoppage time, but in reality Crewe deserved nothing from the game as Ipswich ran down time with a combination of excellent possession football and disappointing play-acting.
Nevertheless, the game underlined the gap in class between the two sides, and whilst Ipswich created few chances, kept the ball in a way that suggested they could challenge for a playoff spot.
The final whistle went, but not before half of the crowd had gone. A lifeless atmosphere and a disappointing performance underlined the fact that we are, irrevocably, going down.
The last word should go to Dario:
‘We don’t produce quality often enough. That’s down to the players we have.’
By Ben Winstanley
Player Ratings
Turnbull 6
Had little to do, and couldn’t do anything for the 2 goals.
Otsemobor 6
Turned far too easily for the winner, and a mixed game otherwise; some good passes and some abysmal ones, but marshalled the ball out for goal kicks well enough when Ipswich tried through balls.
Walker 6
Some good attempted long passes but some poor play gave possession away too easily.
Foster 5
Worrying. He was poor first half positionally and gave the ball away in the second.
Tonkin 6.5
Tried to create chances down the left, and put in a good cross second half. Wasn’t to blame for either goal but not overly effective either. He tried to lead the side in going forward which was commendable despite not creating anything of note.
Billy Jones 6
A few poor tackles saw him get booked and he spread the play well enough first half without performing to the standards he has set for himself in the past.
Kenny Lunt 6.5
A mix of brilliant free kicks and poor ones. When we needed a goal he always looked the most likely to create one for someone else, and indeed created chances that should have been put away.
Gary Roberts 6
Like Billy, fell short of previous performances and was understandably substituted. Not necessarily a case of doing anything wrong, he just didn’t do much right for us; not going for balls in the air and missing simple passes in the second half.
Steve Jones 7
A hard-working performance playing well both defensively through his tracking back and going forward, as highlighted by his wonderful cross in the second half. Also demonstrated his poaching instincts with a tap in from Rodgers’ cross.
Luke Rodgers 7
Awarded Man of the Match, Rodgers worked hard yet again, tirelessly chasing backpasses in to put the goalkeeper under pressure and also ending a good run with a cross shot in the first half which failed to trouble the keeper.
Gareth Taylor 6.5
Got into good positions but ultimately disappointed when he needed to finish chances. Won both sides free kicks at various times when going up for headers with Ipswich centre-backs.