Tomorrow evening sees Crewe Alexandra travel to Vale Park to face Port Vale, the hosts’ squad containing former Alex midfielders Conor Grant and Rekeem Harper as well as former Alex youth goalkeeper Ben Amos.
NB: This game will be live on SkySports+ with an kick-off of 8:00 pm.
This Season:
This season sees the Valiants sitting in 1st place in the league having beaten Salford City, Newport County, Chesterfield, Swindon Town, Notts County, MK Dons, Fleetwood Town, Harrogate Town, AFC Wimbledon and Morecambe, they have drawn with Tranmere Rovers, Accrington Stanley and Colchester United while they have lost against Barrow, Doncaster Rovers and Gillingham.
They lost against Barnsley in the FA Cup 1st Round and lost at Barrow at the same stage of the Carabao Cup. In their EFL Trophy group, they beat Salford City, Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Under-21s and Wrexham (the latter two on penalties) to set up a second-round trip to Doncaster Rovers.
Transfers:
They have signed goalkeeper Amos, defenders Connor Hall, Sam Hart, Ben Heneghan and Kyle John, midfielders Ryan Croasdale, George Byers, Diamond Edwards and Harper while forwards Ronan Curtis, Lorent Tolaj and Ruari Paton complete their permanent signings. Midfielders Brandon Cover and Rico Richards as well as forwards Benicio Baker-Boaitey have all joined on season-long loans.
Leaving the club this summer were defender Alex Iacovitti and forwards Ryan Loft and Baylee Dipepa have all left the club for undisclosed fees to St. Mirren, Cambridge United and Southampton respectively while Lewis Cass, former Alex forward Uche Ikpeazu, Jayson Leutwlier, Gavin Massey and James Wilson left when their deals expired. A number of players have left the club on loan deals.
Coaches Thoughts:
Here are the thoughts of the two sets of coaching staff heading into the game:
Head-to-Head:
Alex Wins: 20
Vale Wins: 40
Draws: 23
Biggest Alex Win: 5-0 at Gresty Road in November 1892
Biggest Vale Win: 5-1 at Gresty Road in August 1978
Last Meeting
Port Vale 1-0 Crewe Alexandra, 5th September 2023 (EFL Trophy)
The teams met for a second straight week, this time in the EFL Trophy following a meeting in the Carabao Cup the week before, with Vale captain Ben Garrity getting the game’s only goal in the 18th minute before Ryan Cooney was sent off for the visitors in stoppage-time.
Crewe: Booth; Billington, O’Riordan, Demetriou (Offord 46); Cooney, Lunt, Thomas, White (Agius 61), Finney; Rowe (Baker-Richardson 61), Nevitt (Tracey 46, Nolan 80)
Booked – Booth 33, Cooney 68
Sent Off – Cooney 90
Vale: Leutwiler; Cass (Ojo 65), Balmer (Iacovitti 46), Shorrock; Sang, Lowe, Walters, Grant (Brazier 90); Garrity, Plant (Clark 72); Loft (Dipepa 65)
Booked – Shorrock 47, Lowe 78, Clark 90
Played for Both:
The following players have been contracted to both teams:
Goalkeepers: Joe Anyon, Herbert Birchenough, Arthur Box, Arthur Brown, Harry Cotton, Ben Davies, Geoff Hickson, Keith Jones, Alfred Maybury, Jack Prince, Stuart Tomlinson, Dino Visser
Defenders: George Abbey, Jimmy Adams, David Artell, Peter Billing, Paul Bowles, Sagi Burton, Tommy Cheadle, John Cotton, Colin Daniel, Garry Dulson, Gareth Griffiths, Neil Griffiths, Chris Hussey, Terry Lees, Harry Leese, Jack Maddock, Joe Maloney, Dick Ray, Ritchie Sutton, Richard Walker, Ashley Westwood, Neil Wilkinson, Frank Wintle, Adam Yates
Midfielders: Dave Brammer, Keith Chadwick, Phil Charnock, Paul Edwards, Peter Farrell, Roy Gater, Anthony Grant, Conor Grant, Rakeem Harper, Geoff Hunter, Lee Molyneux, Derek Mountford, Michael O’Connor, Ernest Perry, Gary Roberts, Val Rouse, Frank Simon, Daniel Trickett-Smith, Thomas Wainwright, Brad Walker, Sam Whittingham
Forwards: David Amoo, Harry Anstiss, John Archer, Alan Bennett, Billy Byrne, Joseph Chell, Peter Cunningham, Billy Cotton, Brendon Daniels, Murdoch Dickie, Derek Edge, W. Edwards, Alan Fletcher, Andrew Finlay, Ron Futcher, Jimmy Greenhoff, Barry Hancock, Fred Haycock, Terry Harkin, Billy Harrison, James Henshall, Uche Ikpeazu, Alfred Jones, Bernard Jones, A-Jay Leitch-Smith, Bert Llewellyn, Harry Lovatt, Lee Matthews, Harry McKirdy, Harry Mellor, Ernie Millward, Byron Moore, Mike Moran, Bob Mountford, Albert Mullard, Tony Naylor, Percy Oldacre, James Peake, Tom Pope, Marc Richards, Luke Rodgers, Joseph Sandham, Kevin Sheldon, Philip Smith, Ron Smith, Stan Smith, Gareth Taylor, Jimmy Thompson, Derek Tomkinson, Kevin Tully, Jack Wareham
Officials:
The EFL have announced that Thomas Kirk is tomorrow’s referee with Grant Taylor and Daniel Smith assisting him and Elliot Bell the fourth official. Kirk has refereed the following Crewe game in the last 5 years:
- Salford City 4-2 Crewe Alexandra (7th October 2023) – Baker-Richardson 2
