Mika Mandron’s 28th-minute opener helped Crewe Alexandra to an opening day draw against last season’s League 2 champions Cheltenham Town at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday following Andy Williams’ equaliser late in the first half.
Manager David Artell named Dave Richards in goal while Kayne Ramsay, Donervon Daniels, Luke Offord and Rio Adebisi were named in the back 4. In midfield were Josh Lundstram, captain Luke Murphy and Oli Finney while Owen Dale and Callum Ainley played either side of Mandron. On the bench were goalkeeper Will Jaaskelainen, Chris Porter, Billy Sass-Davies and Travis Johnson as well as new signings Shaun MacDonald, Chris Long and Callum McFadzean.
The opening chance came in the 16th minute with Lundstram’s cross from the right headed over by Mandron before Daniels would have an effort blocked from a corner a minute later. Will Boyle would give the visitors their first effort after 25 minutes before the Alex took the lead a few minutes later.
A goal-kick was taken short into the midfield with Lundstram knicking the ball, feeding Mandron who moved the ball onto his left foot to curl past Owen Evans in the Robins’ goal. The equaliser came 5 minutes before the break with the Town forward line putting pressure on Daniels with his backpass turning into the perfect cross for Williams to turn in from close-range.
The second half would start with Cheltenham on the front foot with Alfie May forcing Richards into a couple of saves early on before the first Alex chance of the half arrived 10 minutes from time with Daniels’ effort getting stuck in the tree behind the Gresty Road End.
Our next couple of games see the Alex head to Hartlepool United in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night before returning to league action at Portsmouth next Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
It’s a point that was a fair result in the end with neither team creating much and looking at our record on the opening day of the season over the past dozen years (a post was made on one of the Facebook groups), it’s not often that we get all three points on Day 1.
We’ll see over the next few days about the futures of Kirk (who could be leaving to a number of different clubs) and Hoban, who’s rumoured to be looking at retiring from football despite signing for the Alex a few weeks back.
Alexandra Stadium
League 1
7/08/2021 4:00 pm
Attendance: 5301
Referee: Ben Toner
| Crewe Alexandra | Cheltenham Town | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mandron | Williams | ||||||
| Richards | Evans | ||||||
| Ramsay | Long | ||||||
| Daniels | Raglan | ||||||
| Offord | Boyle | ||||||
| Adebisi | Blair | ||||||
| Lundstram | Sercombe | ||||||
| Murphy | Thomas | ||||||
| Finney | 70 | Chapman | |||||
| Dale | Hussey | ||||||
| Mandron | Williams | ||||||
| Ainley | 87 | May | 80 | ||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Jaaskelainen | Flinders | ||||||
| MacDonald | 70 | Tozer | |||||
| Long | Freestone | ||||||
| Porter | 87 | Wright | |||||
| McFadzean | Perry | ||||||
| Sass-Davies | Lloyd | 80 | |||||
| Johnson | Ebanks | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 7 | Goal attempts | 12 |
| 1 | On Target | 6 |
| 3 | Corners | 2 |
| 15 | Fouls | 14 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 57 | % | 43 |