Match Stats

Midfielders Show Forwards How To Finish At Crawley

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A goal in each half from Ryan Wintle and Paul Green, both getting their first of the season, would see Crewe Alexandra defeat Crawley Town at Broadfield Stadium last night despite going behind to Bez Lubala’s opener, a result that would see the Railwaymen top the table after 4 games played.

Manager Dave Artell made 1 change from Saturday’s 1-0 home win against Walsall with Nicky Hunt replacing the suspended Olly Lancashire at the back with Josh Lundstram promoted onto the bench.

The opening effort came in the third minute with Paul Green’s low cross turned away by a defender before Charlie Kirk had an effort headed off the line 4 minutes later, Glenn Morris would deny Daniel Powell twice before 10 minutes were on the clock. You’d be right in thinking that Crewe would get the opener after all this pressure and efforts at goal but you’d be wrong.

16 minutes were on the clock was Ollie Palmer would put Lubala through for him to tuck under Will Jaaskelainen before more chances fell the way of Powell and Green. The equaliser would come on the half-hour mark with Kirk’s centre finding Wintle who finished from the edge of the area. Josh Payne almost restored the hosts lead on 33 minutes but his long-range drive went narrowly over before Lubala would volley over a minute before the break.

Into the second period, which would see the hosts make 2 changes at the break, and it was the Alex who took the lead 10 minutes after the restart with Kirk’s cross headed home by Green from close range before Palmer would have an effort cleared off the line by Eddie Nolan a few minutes later. After a quiet period, Wintle had another effort from distance that flew past the post before Porter and Perry Ng were denied by the Town number 1. The final 15 minutes were dominated by Crawley as they looked to get back into the game but the visitors held on.

Crewe travel to Newport County on Saturday before returning to the Alexandra Stadium to face Bradford City the following week.

What can we take out of this game?

Just look at the table! On a serious note, we seem to have found a resilence of being able to hold on at the end of games that we’d have conceded in if the games were played in the last few seasons, especially away from home. Yes, it’s not great that we have conceded first in 3 of the 4 league games that we’ve played but we have won 2 of those 3 and both have been away from home (I’m not sure without checking first but it’s definitely been a while since we’ve come back from behind twice in such a short timeframe).

Crawley Town
1 – 2
Crewe Alexandra

Broadfield Stadium

League 2

20/08/2019 7:45 pm

Attendance: 2006

Referee: Tom Nield

Crawley Town Crewe Alexandra
Lubala Wintle, Green
Morris Jaaskelainen
Sesay 56 Ng
Tunnicliffe Hunt
Dallison-Lisbon Nolan
Doherty Pickering 81
Payne Lowery
Camara Wintle
Nathaniel-George 46 Green
Nadesan 46 Powell 72
Lubala
 
Porter
Palmer Kirk

Substitutes

Luyambula Richards
Grego-Cox 46 Jones
Ferguson Ainley
Bulman Finney 81
Morais Dale 72
Dacres-Cogley Lundstram
Galach Reilly

Game Statistics

14 Goal attempts 16
3 On Target 10
7 Corners 7
14 Fouls 5
1 Yellow Cards 0
0 Red Cards 0
46 % 54

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