A brace from Jordan Bowery (the first of which looked as if it was stolen by James Jones) after a curling effort from Charlie Kirk opened the scored at the Alexandra Stadium against Macclesfield Town this past Saturday.
Manager David Artell made three changes from last Saturday’s defeat at Carlisle United with Kevin O’Connor (making his debut following his loan arrival on Thursday) and George Ray coming at the back for Nicky Hunt and Michael Raynes whilst James Jones came into the midfield following Paul Green‘s injury at Carlisle.
The first major moment of the game came in the sixth minute as O’Connor’s cross was headed wide by captain Ray from a corner before Jordan Bowery had an effort saved by Kieran O’Hara in the Macc goal. The dead-lock would be broken on 17 minutes though as Kirk curled the ball into the top-corner from the corner of the 18-yard box whilst Town’s best chance of the opening period came in the 32nd minute as Malachi Napa shot from the edge of the area with Ben Garratt making an easy save.
The second goal came 5 minutes before the break as Kirk’s left-wing cross was headed goal-wards by Bowery as it looked like Jones got the final touch on the goal-line under pressure from the defender. After the break, at which we saw a change of system for Macclesfield as they went to 3-at-the-back, the visitors piled the pressure on until the third goal came 20 minutes from time as a flowing move started by Kirk saw Ainley flick the ball into Jones’ path with the midfielder lifting the ball into Bowery to head home from just inside the area.
The next game sees the Alex travel to Prenton Park as we open our EFL Trophy campaign against Tranmere Rovers tomorrow night whilst there is no game at the weekend seeing as the home game against Mansfield Town was postponed due to the visitors having players on international duty.
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
1/09/2018 4:00 pm
Referee: Carl Boyeson
| Crewe Alexandra | Macclesfield Town | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kirk, Bowery (2) | |||||||
| Garratt | O'Hara | ||||||
| Ng | Pearson | ||||||
| Ray | Kelleher | 79 | |||||
| Nolan | 19 | Grimes | |||||
| O'Connor | 79 | Fitzpatrick | |||||
| Ainley | 70 | Maycock | 46 | ||||
| Jones | Evans | ||||||
| Wintle | Ponticelli | 36 | |||||
| Kirk | Whitaker | ||||||
| Miller | Napa | ||||||
| Bowery | Smith | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Richards | Taylor | ||||||
| Raynes | 70 | Lowe | |||||
| Porter | Marsh | ||||||
| Nicholls | 79 | Blissett | 36 | ||||
| Lowery | Welch-Hayes | 46 | |||||
| Reilly | Vincenti | 79 | |||||
| Hunt | 19 | Arthur | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 13 | Goal attempts | 23 |
| 8 | On Target | 11 |
| 6 | Corners | 8 |
| 7 | Fouls | 10 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 49 | % | 51 |