This afternoon sees us head to League 1 Accrington Stanley in the 1st Round of the FA Cup, the hosts sitting in 19th place in their league with 15 points.
So far this season, they have beaten MK Dons, Southend United and Ipswich Town, have drawn with AFC Wimbledon, Bristol Rovers, Wycombe Wanderers, Blackpool, Oxford United and Coventry City while they have lost against Lincoln City, Shrewsbury Town, Fleetwood Town, Sunderland, Rochdale, Peterborough United and Gillingham.
In the cups, they lost to Sunderland in the first round of the EFL Cup and topped their EFL Trophy group by winning all 3 games against Fleetwood, Oldham Athletic and Liverpool’s Under-21s.
Over the summer, Accrington have signed 15 players over the summer, 9 of which are permanent signings with 3 loans until January and 3 full-season loans while letting 7 leave the club permanently. Arriving at the club are goalkeeper Josef Bursik (SSL loan), defenders Zaine Francis-Angol, Joe Maguire, Ben Barclay, Phil Edwards and loanee duo Aji Alese and Jerome Opoku (Jan loan), midfielders Joe Pritchard, Lamine Kaba Sherif and Sadou Diallo (Jan) as well as forwards Colby Bishop, Wilson Carvalho, Dion Charles and loanees Courtney Baker-Richardson and Connor Simpson (both EOS).
Looking back in the archives, the two teams have met 13 times with both teams having won 6 times with 1 draw. The two teams last met in the league in the 17/18 season with Stanley winning both games (2-0 in Cheshire and 1-0 in Lancashire) while the only FA Cup meeting saw the Alex win 6-1 at Ewood Park.
Who are the officials for the game?
The officials for this game see Neil Hair as the man in the middle where he is assisted by Danny Gratton and Conor Brown with Alan Clayton being the fourth official. Here are the Crewe games that have been refereed by Hair in the previous 5 years:
- Colchester United 6-0 Crewe Alexandra (21st August 2018)
- Crewe Alexandra 4-3 Forest Green Rovers (27th April 2019) – Porter, og, Kirk (2)
