Two Mika Mandron penalties saw Crewe Alexandra defeat Lincoln City at the Alexandra Stadium last night, a result that saw the hosts move off the bottom of the table.
Manager David Artell made six changes from last Wednesday’s 2-0 win against Doncaster Rovers in the EFL Trophy with Dave Richards, Billy Sass-Davies, Zac Williams, Rio Adebisi, Regan Griffiths and Tom Lowery all returning into the starting 11.
The opening chance of the game came in the 3rd minute with Finney volleying wide from just outside the area after a Tom Lowery free-kick was headed clear before Dave Richards would deny Hakeeb Adelakun at the other end 9 minutes later.
The Alex took the lead in the 49th minute with Billy Sass-Davies fouled from another Lowery free-kick with Mandron scoring from the penalty spot into the top corner before the lead was doubled a few minutes later by the same route, albeit into the bottom corner, following a foul by first-half substitute TJ Ayoma which saw the defender receive a straight red card for taking down Ben Knight.
Chris Maguire would fire over in the 57th minute before Adebisi would deny Teddy Bishop with a block. Mandron would be denied a hat-trick by a great Josh Griffiths save in the 77th minute before Knight was denied in stoppage-time as he shot straight at Griffiths when one-on-one.
Our next couple of games see the Alex hosting Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday before traveling to Gillingham the following Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
A couple of decent pens from Mandron, good with Porter not available following an injury in the warm-up, especially the first smashed into the top corner against a team that weren’t great on the night.
Against better teams in the league, we’ll need to improve a little more but we’re getting to a point where we have a team that has the ability on the pitch to remain in League 1 for next season.
Alexandra Stadium
League 1
7/12/2021 8:45 pm
Attendance: 3285
Referee: Declan Bourne
| Crewe Alexandra | Lincoln City | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mandron (2) | |||||||
| Richards | Griffiths | ||||||
| Offord | Poole | ||||||
| Sass-Davies | Montsma | ||||||
| Williams | Jackson | 18 | |||||
| Ainley | 70 | Robson | 46 | ||||
| Lowery | McGrandles | ||||||
| Griffiths | 70 | Bishop | |||||
| Finney | 85 | Bridcutt | 46 | ||||
| Adebisi | Adelakun | 61 | |||||
| Knight | Maguire | ||||||
| Mandron | Bramall | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Jaaskelainen | Long | ||||||
| Thomas | Sanders | ||||||
| Murphy | 70 | Longdon | |||||
| Gomes | Fiorini | 46 | |||||
| Lundstram | N'Lundulu | 61 | |||||
| Johnson | 70 | Sorensen | 46 | ||||
| Robertson | 85 | Eyoma | 18 | ||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 16 | Goal attempts | 11 |
| 6 | On Target | 2 |
| 1 | Corners | 6 |
| 11 | Fouls | 17 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 1 |
| 53 | % | 47 |