Boxing Day sees Crewe Alexandra travel to Whaddon Road to face Cheltenham Town with the hosts’ squad containing former Alex loanee defender Sam Stubbs.
NB: This game is available on SkySports+.
This Season:
This season sees The Robins’s sitting in 14th place in the league having beaten Newport County, Harrogate Town, Accrington Stanley, Colchester United, Carlisle United, Tranmere Rovers and Morecambe, they have drawn with Chesterfield, Bradford City, Bromley, Port Vale, Doncaster Rovers and Gillingham while they have lost against Grimsby Town, AFC Wimbledon, Walsall, Salford City, Fleetwood Town, Barrow, Swindon Town and MK Dons.
They lost against Salford in the FA Cup 2nd Round (having beaten Rotherham United in the previous round) and against Plymouth Argyle in the 1st Round of the Carabao Cup. In their EFL Trophy group, they beat Newport, West Ham United’s Under-21s and Reading to finish top of their group before defeating Cambridge United in the second round to set up a trip to Cheltenham in the New Year.
Transfers:
They have signed goalkeepers Joe Day and Owen Evans, defenders Ryan Haynes, Arkell Jude-Boyd and Ibrahim Bakare, midfielders Scot Bennett, Harry Pell, Luke Young, Ethon Archer and Harrison Sohna with forwards Liam Dulson, Ryan Bowman and George Miller completing their permanent signings. Defenders Lewis Payne, Levi Laing and Stubbs, midfielder Joel Colwill and forward Manni Norkett have all joined on season-long loans with defender Lewis Shipley joining until January.
Leaving the club this summer were Will Ferry, George Lloyd, Sean Long, Jamie Pardington, Liam Sercombe, Luke Southwood, Liam Smith, Greg Sloggett, Ben Williams, Daniel Adshead, Josh Harrop, James Olayinka, Adulai Sambu and Curtis Davies left when their deals expired (Davies retiring) with Lewis Freestone, Elliot Bonds and Rob all leaving for undisclosed fees and Aidan Keena joining St. Patrick’s Athletic on a free.
Head-to-Head:
Alex Wins: 12
Robins Wins: 9
Draws: 7
Biggest Alex Win: 8-1 at the Alexandra Stadium in April 2011
Biggest Robins Win: 4-1 at the Alexandra in November 2016 (FA Cup)
Last Meeting:
Cheltenham Town 1-2 Crewe Alexandra, 26th February 2022
Chris Long opened the scoring for the Alex in the 18th minute before Kion Etete equalising 3 minutes after the break with Chris Porter scoring the winner 7 minutes from time for the visitors.
Alex: Richards; Johnson, O’Riordan, Offord; Lundstram, Harper, Lowery, Griffiths, Agyei (Sambou 85); Porter, Long (Evans 90)
Booked: Griffiths 26, Johnson 64
Cheltenham: Evans; Pollock (A. Williams 87), Raglan, Boyle; Blair, Wright, Bonds, Ramsey (Sercombe 60), B. Williams; May, Etete
Booked: Boyle 31, Wright 61
Played for Both:
The following players have been contracted to both teams:
Goalkeepers: Neil Cutler, Mark Gayle
Defenders: Chris Hussey, Billy Jones, Sam Stubbs
Midfielders: Chris Clements, Charlie Colkett, Ben Marshall, Kevin Stewart, Conor Thomas
Forwards: Billy Dale, Steve Guinan, Danny Haynes, Amari Morgan-Smith, Tony Naylor, Luke Varney, Billy Waters
Officials:
The EFL have announced that Alan Young is tomorrow’s referee with Mark Senior and Sean Rothwell assisting him and Steve Durnall the fourth official. Young has refereed the following Crewe games in the last 5 years:
- Gillingham 4-1 Crewe Alexandra (26th January 2021) – Porter
- Stevenage 1-0 Crewe Alexandra (14th March 2023)
- Crewe Alexandra 0-3 Barrow (22nd December 2023)
- Newport County 2-1 Crewe Alexandra (27th September 2024) – Thibaut
