Second half goals from Chris Porter and James Jones gave Crewe Alexandra a much needed victory at home to league-leaders Lincoln City yesterday afternoon at the Alexandra Stadium despite Harry Anderson’s stoppage-time strike.
Manager David Artell made 2 changes from last Saturday’s defeat at Forest Green Rovers with Paul Green making his first start since August and Charlie Kirk coming in on the left of midfield, Callum Ainley dropped down to the bench and Corey Whelan missing out on the matchday squad.
The Alex started on the attack and created the best chances in the opening half, Porter headed wide before Harry Pickering forced Josh Vickers into an excellent save diving away to his right. More chances came later in the half with Kirk firing just wide on the half-volley from a Ng cross before another cross from Perry was headed out for Jones to put just over.
The opening goal came 3 minutes after the break with a Jones corner played short for Pickering to cross with Porter heading home from 6 yards out with Jones adding the second on 72 minutes after great play from Green and Kirk allowing the central midfielder the space to pick out the Scotsman to score from 12 yards. The Imps did get one back late on in stoppage-time with captain Lee Frecklington squaring for Anderson to tap into an empty net.
Stevenage are the next visitors to the Alexandra Stadium before a trip to Bury on New Years’ Day.
What have we learnt from this game?
We dominated the team that sits top of the league for all game and should have won by more than the single goal we did in the end. Greenie was everywhere and how he managed that on his first start for 4 months was a mystery and hopefully, he can recharge his batteries in time for the Stevenage game (good job that Dave didn’t leave him out of the Xmas/New Year programme like I would have done!).
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
26/12/2018 4:00 pm
Attendance: 4440
Referee: Chris Sarginson
| Crewe Alexandra | Lincoln City | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Porter, Jones | Anderson | ||||||
| Garratt | Vickers | ||||||
| Ng | Eardley | ||||||
| Ray | Bostwick | ||||||
| Nolan | Shackell | ||||||
| Pickering | Toffolo | ||||||
| Green | 81 | Pett | 69 | ||||
| Wintle | O'Connor | ||||||
| Jones | Frecklington | ||||||
| Kirk | 90 | Andrade | 40 | ||||
| Bowery | Anderson | ||||||
| Porter | 90 | Akinde | 77 | ||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Richards | Smith | ||||||
| Miller | 90 | Gordon | 77 | ||||
| Ainley | 81 | Wharton | |||||
| Nicholls | 90 | Rhead | 69 | ||||
| Dale | Wilson | ||||||
| Reilly | McCartan | 40 | |||||
| Hunt | Mensah | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 20 | Goal attempts | 4 |
| 8 | On Target | 1 |
| 7 | Corners | 2 |
| 12 | Fouls | 14 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 4 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 56 | % | 44 |