A first-half brace from Aaron Rowe and a Mickey Demetriou header saw Crewe Alexandra defeat League 1 Derby County at Pride Park in the FA Cup 1st Round replay last night after Tom Barkhuizen gave the hosts an early lead.
Manager Lee Bell made 3 changes from Saturday’s 1-0 home win against Notts County with Lewis Billington, Charlie Colkett and Charlie Finney coming into the team for Conor Thomas and Shilow Tracey, who both dropped down to the bench while Connor O’Riordan missed the game after being called up by the Republic of Ireland for their Under-21 squad.
The game’s opening chance and goal came in the 4th minute as Barkhuizen would get on the end of a Louis Sibley cross before the Alex were level almost straight away, Rowe driving into the bottom corner from just outside the area to score his first goal for the club. The visitors would also take the lead in the 21st minute as a wayward pass from Conor Hourihane was intercepted by Rowe with his deflected effort beating Joe Wildsmith before the keeper would deny Courtney Baker-Richardson 6 minutes later.
At the other end, Harvey Davies would make a save from a James Collins header before the on-loan Liverpool keeper would tip a Max Bird effort onto the bar a couple of minutes before the break. The lead would be extended on 65 minutes as Joe White’s corner would be headed in by Demetriou before CBR would have an effort saved by Wildsmith.
The next couple of games see the Alex host Newcastle United’s Under-21s in the final EFL Trophy game next Tuesday before returning to league action at home to Doncaster Rovers the following Saturday.
Final Thoughts:
While it felt like we had blown the best chance of getting through to face Bristol Rovers at home in Round 2 with the late goals a week and a half ago, this team (down to the bare bones again as we named just 6 subs out of the 9 permitted – 3 of whom will be playing in the Youth Cup game tomorrow night at the Alexandra Stadium) shows its quality again with another resilient performance against a Derby side that ran out of ideas quickly.