A second-half hat-trick from Lewis Reilly saw Crewe Alexandra advance in the Cheshire Senior Cup to the 1st Round stage after a 6-0 victory over Cheadle Town.
Manager Alex Morris named Dave Richards in goal with a back 4 from right to left of Travis Johnson, captain Michael Raynes, Billy Sass-Davies and Kevin O’Connor. In midfield, Luke Offord and Josh Lundstram played centrally whilst Alex Nicholls, Tom Lowery and Oliver Finney played in behind Reilly. On the bench were goalkeeper Will Jaaskelainen, Rio Adebisi, Joe Robbins, Matthew Fenton and Connor Heath.
The scoring opened early on with Finney scoring from 12 yards across goalkeeper Daniel Whitling with Rhys Webb almost equalising from the kick-off with Richards making a save from the one-on-one in one of few chances for the North West Counties League side. A second was added mid-way through the first half with O’Connor’s low left-wing cross finding Reilly with his mis-control falling perfectly into the path of the arriving Lowery.
The goals followed in the second period with the third coming around the hour-mark as Offord’s through-ball put Nicholls through with him squaring it to Reilly who rolled it into an empty net before the fourth was added a couple of minutes later as Johnson’s effort squirmed under Whitling. There was still time for Reilly to complete his hat-trick, firstly receiving the ball from Lowery to score from 6 yards out before getting on the end of Finney’s low cross from the left a few minutes later.
Crewe (4-2-3-1): Richards; Johnson, Raynes (c), Sass-Davies, O’Connor; Offord, Lundstram; Nicholls (Heath 76), Lowery (Robbins 78), Finney (Adebisi 78); Reilly
Cheadle Town (4-4-2): Whitling; Dunn, Delaney, Devlin (Smith 58), Sherrington (c); Collinson (Ratican 74), German, Hincks, Christopher; Webb, Clooney (Knight 68)
