A brace from Chris Porter and a stoppage-time goal from Charlie Kirk was enough for Crewe Alexandra to retain their place at the top of League 2 with a dominant victory over Swindon Town at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday afternoon.
Manager David Artell made 2 changes from last Saturday’s win over Carlisle United with Will Jaaskelainen returning in goal after being on international duty for the last couple of games while Owen Dale came in on the right-wing with Dave Richards dropping down to the bench while Daniel Powell missed out after taking a knock last week.
The first chance of the game saw left-back Harry Pickering force a save out of goalkeeper Steven Benda in the third minute of the game but after a half-hour period that saw the Alex have the majority of the ball, it was Swindon who took the lead 8 minutes before the break. Loanee Eoin Doyle after the ball rebounded off former Robins captain Olly Lancashire with their only shot before the break.
The Alex would level before the hour-mark with Porter heading home from close range from a Tom Lowery cross before a number of yellow cards were shown to visiting players by referee Marc Edwards (who must have forgotten that he had them in his pocket for the opening hour of the game).
The leaders would end up with all 3 points though through a second for Porter, again from a Lowery cross, with the forward finishing at the second attempt while a third was added in the fourth minute of stoppage time with Kirk dispossessing a defender before firing across Benda.
We host Colchester United on Tuesday night before a trip to Forest Green Rovers next Saturday.
What can we learn from this game?
It was probably the best performance of the season that looked like it was going to be frustrating due to Swindon breaking up the play a lot (over 20 fouls just for them in the game) and our inability to score for most of the game. Hopefully, we can continue the form in the next week and beyond starting with Tuesday night’s game.
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
19/10/2019 3:00 pm
Attendance: 4792
Referee: Marc Edwards
Crewe Alexandra | Swindon Town | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Porter (2), Kirk | Doyle | ||||||
Jaaskelainen | Benda | ||||||
Ng | Hunt | ||||||
Hunt | 18 | Baudry | |||||
Nolan | Zakuani | ||||||
Pickering | Donohue | ||||||
Green | 79 | Isgrove | 57 | ||||
Wintle | Lyden | ||||||
Lowery | Grant | ||||||
Dale | 84 | Anderson | 33 | ||||
Porter | Doyle | ||||||
Kirk | Yates | 71 | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
Richards | McCormick | ||||||
Lancashire | 18 | Rose | 33 | ||||
Jones | 79 | Broadbent | |||||
Ainley | 84 | Doughty | |||||
Finney | Woolery | 57 | |||||
Anene | Iandolo | ||||||
Adebisi | Jaiyesimi | 71 |
Game Statistics |
||
21 | Goal attempts | 3 |
7 | On Target | 2 |
12 | Corners | 1 |
5 | Fouls | 18 |
0 | Yellow Cards | 4 |
0 | Red Cards | 0 |
64 | % | 36 |