Goals from forwards Mika Mandron, Chris Long and substitute Bassala Sambou gave Crewe Alexandra a win against AFC Wimbledon at the Alexandra Stadium yesterday in interim manager Alex Morris’ first game in charge despite Sam Cosgrove’s opener for the visitors.
Manager Morris made two changes to the starting 11 from last Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Doncaster Rovers with defender Zac Williams and forward Scott Kashket returning to the side in for Lewis Billington and Sambou, who both dropped down to the bench.
The opening chance came in the 6th minute with Long dragging a shot wide before the visitors took the lead in the 19th minute as former Nantwich Town loanee Cosgrove scoring from 25 yards out with a drive into the top corner.
The equaliser came on the hour-mark as Cosgrove’s back-pass would be intercepted by Mandron who rounded Nikola Tzanev, finishing into the bottom corner before Long would get his goal a couple of minutes later, finishing on the turn from Tom Lowery’s pull-back. The third came late in stoppage-time as the Alex would break from a corner through Mandron who squared it for Sambou, who had his first effort saved before finishing under Tzanev.
Our next couple of games sees the Alex travel to Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday before hosting Ipswich Town in the final home game next Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
A better performance for the majority of the game as well as playing at a higher tempo than we’ve seen in recent months – not the perfect game but at least a step in the right direction.
Morris moved back to a 4-3-3 formation although Callum Ainley would play as the more advanced of the midfield 3 which worked against this opposition – it’ll be interesting to see how we line up on Tuesday night.