Match Stats

Kirk Double Ends Home Season In Dramatic Fashion

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A spirited comeback from 2 goals down saw Crewe Alexandra get their 15th home win of the season against Forest Green Rovers at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday afternoon thanks to a late double from Charlie Kirk.

Manager David Artell named an unchanged line-up from Monday’s win at Swindon with the only change to the matchday 18 saw defender Aaron Taylor-Sinclair replace Jordan Bowery on the bench.

The opening chance of the game came in the 17th minute with midfielder Gavin Gunning curled past the post from distance before the first meaningful attack for the Alex a minute later resulted in the opening goal. Tom Lowery picked the ball up in midfield, drove past two challenges before feeding Paul Green whose low cross was flicked in by Chris Porter, the striker getting his 15th goal of the season before the visitors levelled 8 minutes before the break with Reece Brown scoring from the edge of the area after a pull-back from Dayle Grubb.

It looked as if the game would be wrapped up within the opening 10 minutes of the second period with the visitors scoring twice, first Gunning found Junior Mondal whose effort found the top corner before Mondal turned provider for Christian Doidge to score from close range.

The game turned on 63 minutes as a Kirk cross was turned into his own net by Forest Green captain Joe Mills before substitute Owen Dale found Kirk whose volley didn’t test James Montgomery while Forest Green also had chances with Mills’ free-kick being tipped over by Will Jaaskelainen.

The final 5 minutes saw Dale and Lowery combine on the Alex right to set up Kirk to finish from close range with 3 minutes left to play before he added his second a couple of minutes later after Montgomery mishit a clearance straight to Kirk who finished from 35 yards after taking a touch to steady himself.

The final game of the season is at Grimsby Town next Saturday.

What have we learnt from this game?

This was a good game between 2 decent sides that just gives us a feeling of ‘What if?’ when looking at this season as a whole. Whilst we have been good at home (having won the joint-most in the league going into this round of fixtures), it just illustrates how bad our away form has been.

I couldn’t have been the only one in the ground who thought it was over as Doidge got the third for FGR yesterday but we have this resilience at home where we don’t look beaten even in times like this game. The injection of energy and pace that Dale and fellow substitute Ollie Finney provided in the final quarter of the game was much needed as Ainley and Jones don’t really offer that as much.

Crewe Alexandra
4 – 3
Forest Green Rovers

Alexandra Stadium

League 2

27/04/2019 3:00 pm

Attendance: 3906

Referee: Graham Salisbury

Crewe Alexandra Forest Green Rovers
Porter, og, Kirk (2) Brown, Mondal, Doidge
Jaaskelainen Montgomery
Ng Shephard
Wintle Rawson
Nolan McGinley
Hunt
 
Mills
 
Lowery Winchester
Green 85 Gunning
 
Jones 74 Mondal 90
Ainley 66 Brown
 
Porter Grubb 80
Kirk
 
Doidge

Substitutes

Garratt Ward
Miller James
Dale 66 Collins
Finney 74 Digby
Reilly McCoulsky 80
Sass-Davies Godwin-Malife
Taylor-Sinclair 85 Reid
 
90

Game Statistics

8 Goal attempts 8
5 On Target 5
1 Corners 5
8 Fouls 7
2 Yellow Cards 4
0 Red Cards 0
42 % 58

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