This evening sees second-placed Crewe Alexandra make the long trip to Devon to play against third-placed Exeter City at St. James Park with both sides looking to top the league should Swindon Town slip up in their game at home to Scunthorpe United.
So far this season, they have beaten Macclesfield Town twice, Stevenage twice, Morecambe, Mansfield Town, Carlisle United, Port Vale, Forest Green Rovers twice, Plymouth Argyle, Crawley Town, Northampton Town, Salford City, Newport County, Cambridge United, Grimsby Town and Oldham Athletic, they have drawn Swindon Town, Oldham Athletic, Leyton Orient, Newport, us, Cheltenham Town, Walsall, Colchester United twice and Crawley with their defeats coming against Grimsby, Cambridge, Scunthorpe, Bradford City, Port Vale, Swindon Town and Northampton.
In the cups, they lost to Coventry City in the 1st Round of the EFL Cup and lost to Hartlepool in the FA Cup 2nd Round after defeating Cambridge in Round 1 (both ties going to replays). They have been successful in the EFL Trophy, topping their group which also contained Cheltenham, Newport and West Ham United’s Under-21 side and knocking out Oxford United (on penalties), Ipswich Town and Stevenage before losing to Portsmouth in the semi-finals.
Since the last meeting, Exeter have signed 3 players with goalkeepers Dino Visser (who has since been released) and Jared Thompson arriving along with winger Brennan Dickenson. Midfielder Jordan Tillson was the only other player that left the Grecians with him joining Ross County.
Looking back in the archives, the two teams have met 49 times with Exeter leading the head-to-head with 20 wins to 16 with 13 draws. Crewe’s biggest win came in a 4-1 victory at St James Park in August 1967 while Exeter’s biggest win came at the same venue with a 4-0 win in February 2017.
Who are the officials for the game?
The officials for this game see Lee Swabey as the man in the middle where he is assisted by Christopher Kidd and Mark Derrien with Adrian Quelch being the fourth official. During the last 5 seasons the following Crewe games have been refereed by Swabey:
- Crewe Alexandra 3-1 Doncaster Rovers (30th April 2016) – Ainley, Haber, Inman
- Yeovil Town 3-0 Crewe Alexandra (17th April 2017)
- Barnet 2-1 Crewe Alexandra (30th March 2018) – McKirdy
- Crewe Alexandra 0-1 Carlisle United (10th November 2018, FA Cup)
- Cheltenham Town 1-1 Crewe Alexandra (28th September 2019) – Porter
- Walsall 1-2 Crewe Alexandra (1st February 2020) – Powell, Finney
