Tomorrow afternoon sees a trip to Northampton Town’s Sixfields Stadium with the hosts sitting in 9th place in the league.
So far this season, they have beaten Swindon Town, Plymouth Argyle, Newport County, Stevenage, Salford City, Carlisle United and Cambridge United, they have drawn with Port Vale, Crawley Town, Morecambe and Oldham Athletic and have lost to Walsall, Macclesfield Town, Colchester United, Bradford City, Leyton Orient and Scunthorpe United.
In the cups, they lost to Swansea City in the first round of the EFL Cup, they’ll face Notts County at home in the 2nd Round of the FA Cup after beating Chippenham Town in the previous round. They finished in second in their EFL Trophy group, having beaten Cambridge United and Arsenal Under-21 (the latter on penalties) and lost to Peterborough United, meaning that they will be unseeded in the next round.
Over the summer, Northampton have signed 14 players over the summer, 12 of which are permanent signings with 1 loan until January and 1 full-season loan while letting 7 leave the club permanently. Arriving at the club are goalkeepers Steve Arnold and Andy Fisher (January loan), defenders Reece Hall-Johnson, Joe Martin, Charlie Goode, Michael Harriman and Scott Wharton (EOS loan), midfielders Nicky Adams, Chris Lines, Alan McCormack, Matt Warburton, Ryan Watson and Paul Anderson as well as forwards Harry Smith, former Alex striker Vadaine Oliver and Egli Kaja.
Looking back in the archives, the two teams have met 68 times with Northampton leading the head-to-head with 28 wins to 24 with 16 draws. Crewe’s biggest win came in a 3-0 victory at the Alexandra Stadium in March 1971 while Northampton’s biggest win came at the same ground in November 1986 with a 5-0 win. Last season saw the Cobblers do the double over the Alex, winning 2-0 in both games.
Who are the officials for the game?
The officials for this game see Craig Hicks as the man in the middle where he is assisted by Darren Wilding and Gregory Read with Marc Wilson being the fourth official. Here are the Crewe games that have been refereed by Hicks in the previous 5 years:
- Crewe Alexandra 1-4 Lincoln City (11th November 2017) – Raynes
- Cambridge United 3-1 Crewe Alexandra (30th December 2017) – Dagnall
- Stevenage 0-1 Crewe Alexandra (20th October 2018) – Bowery
- Exeter City 1-0 Crewe Alexandra (15th December 2018)
- Grimsby Town 2-0 Crewe Alexandra (5th May 2019)
I asked The Shoe Army for their thoughts going into the game.
How would you describe your transfer activity this summer?
Busy! Was almost a complete squad overhaul. Some fan favourites let go (John-Joe O’Toole and David Buchanan) and some players that the fans definitely felt were good enough for a playoff push this year (Junior Morais). On the whole, we do seem to have signed well, however. I think the bottom line is these new players are ‘Curle’ players. They get his style and ethos and whilst you could argue the toss on whether they are better footballers than those who were here before, they are players Curle gets on with and wants in the club.
Which position is the one that you should improve the most from the squad you currently have?
Some decent full-backs wouldn’t go a miss. Harriman was a notable free-agent signing who had the most experience in his career in a higher league but hasn’t set the world alight yet. Joe Maguire also has been in and out with injury and not shone when he did have his chance.
What do you think the team will be for the game?
Curle’s Northampton goes through a mini-run of awful form, followed by 5 or 6 games unbeaten, to then drop off again. Rinse, repeat. At the moment we are in a good little run, unbeaten in 5 games in all comps and we’ve benefitted from a more predictable team selection in that time. I wouldn’t imagine it would be far different from the team that we saw 2 weeks ago away at Oldham, maybe Vadaine Oliver given a chance after his 2 goal showing in the FA Cup last weekend.
How would you set-up to nullify your team?
We do still have a tendency to go long when things are difficult. The early season struggles I think stemmed from Curles clear intention to have all the play flow through Nicky Adams out wide into aerially dominant strikers. Once that was figured out, there wasn’t much Plan B but the team have found a way recently. Our troubles mostly come from holding on to leads and managing a game so I would say the best bet would be to give us a 2-0 lead!
Who is the danger man for this game?
Difficult to pinpoint a danger man, goals are fairly well spread around the team but I would definitely highlight Alan McCormack. He belongs in a much higher league than this, he controls the game and his performance will have a massive outcome on the performance.
What do you think is a realistic aim for Town this season?
I think this game will be a good indicator. I hope a playoff push would be a realistic aim but we have to pick up points against top teams and maintain consistency.
