Ryan Cooney’s first league goal helped Crewe Alexandra draw at home to Salford City at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday.
Manager Lee Bell made 1 change from last Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Doncaster Rovers as Jamie Knight-Lebel returned from international duty to replace Joel Tabiner in the starting eleven as Conor Thomas and Omar Bogle returned to the bench following their injuries. Former Alex loanee Josh Austerfield started for the visitors in their back line while Alex Academy Alum Matty Lund was among their substitutes.
The opening chance came in the 10th minute as a free-kick from Max Conway was taken short to Max Sanders with the latter’s shot saved by Jamie Jones before the visitors took the lead a couple of minutes later as a through-ball from Mnoga was dummied by Kouassi with Ben Woodburn getting in behind and scoring at the near post past Filip Marschall.
The score would be level on 27 minutes as left wing-back Zac Williams got down the left, turned onto his right foot with his cross headed in by Cooney at the back post across Jones before Tyrese Fornah smashed the ball over after half-time.
Williams would have a deflected cross that Jones needed to tip over his bar on 57 minutes before Shilow Tracey would have a header turned over by Jones. Substitute Owen Lunt would have an effort in stoppage time from 25 yards that Jones also tipped over as the teams shared the points.
The next games for the Alex see them travel to Fleetwood Town on Tuesday before hosting Tranmere Rovers next Saturday,
Final Thoughts:
It was a fair result against a really physical team that some would argue wasn’t punished by referee Gill with him giving free-kicks in defensive areas for the Alex for the most part and not giving them in the attacking third.
Cooney finally got his league goal (having got one from the spot in the EFL Trophy) with a well-attacked header – brilliant work down the left from Williams, though it looked as though the chance had gone, allowing Cooney time to get into the area to head in with Luke Garbutt also slipping.
Alexandra Stadium
League 2
19/10/2024 3:00 pm
Attendance: 4936
Referee: Sunny Singh Gill
| Crewe Alexandra | Salford City | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cooney | Woodburn | ||||||
| Marschall | Jones | ||||||
| Connolly | Mnoga | ||||||
| Knight-Lebel | Tilt (c) | ||||||
| Demetriou (c) | Austerfield | 70 | |||||
| Cooney | N'Mai | ||||||
| Sanders | 75 | Fornah | |||||
| Breckin | 46 | Ashley | |||||
| Conway | 75 | Garbutt | |||||
| Williams | Woodburn | 70 | |||||
| Holicek | Kouassi | ||||||
| Tracey | 78 | Okoronkwo | 70 | ||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Booth | Young | ||||||
| Thomas | 75 | Edwards | |||||
| Bogle | 78 | Lund | 70 | ||||
| Lunt | 75 | Stockton | |||||
| Finney | Taylor | ||||||
| Billington | McAleny | 70 | |||||
| Thibaut | 46 | Luamba | 70 | ||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 7 | Goal attempts | 11 |
| 3 | On Target | 5 |
| 8 | Corners | 4 |
| 9 | Fouls | 23 |
| 0 | Yellow Cards | 3 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 53 | % | 47 |