Owen Dale’s overhead kick 2 minutes from time saw Crewe Alexandra get a point against Burton Albion at the Pirelli Stadium yesterday after defender Sam Hughes gave the hosts the lead 12 minutes before.
Manager David Artell made three changes from Tuesday’s 4-2 win against Swindon Town with defenders Travis Johnson and Omar Beckles coming in for the suspended Perry Ng and Olly Lancashire while Mika Mandron replaced Chris Porter up front. Lancashire and Porter dropped down to the bench where they were joined by Billy Sass-Davies, back from a loan spell with Altrincham, with Harry Pickering the stand-in captain for the Alex. The hosts had former Alex players John Brayford (their captain) and Colin Daniel starting as their full-backs while Ben Garratt was their substitute goalkeeper.
The opening chance of the game came in the 20th minute with Brewers midfielder Charles Vernam having a shot straight at Will Jaaskelainen before Pickering would draw a save from Kieran O’Hara with a free-kick that was almost a short corner just before the half-hour. An inswinging corner from the Alex captain was headed just wide from Beckles on 35 minutes before Tom Lowery forced O’Hara into a save from distance with the former Manchester United stopper keeping it out easily.
Luke Murphy, against his former employers, had an effort saved by O’Hara after receiving a corner short from Lowery 7 minutes after the break before the arrival of Charlie Kirk (on for Daniel Powell) saw him find Ryan Wintle whose effort was comfortable for O’Hara. The hosts took the lead in the 76th minute as Hughes headed home a corner from Joe Powell before the centre-back cleared a Daniel header off his own line. The equaliser came 2 minutes from time as Pickering’s deep corner was headed back across goal by Beckles with Dale scoring with an overhead kick from 12 yards out.
The next games for the Alex see us travel to Hull City in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday while our next league action is our home game against Northampton Town next Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
Credit has to go out to Burton for their high press and energy during the first half although it seemed to take it a little out of them as the game went on. O’Hara in the Brewers goal looked good with everything that he had to do so it was going to take something a bit special to beat him which is exactly what we saw from Dale.
At the other end, it’s another disappointing goal to concede, both with Beckles’ marking of Hughes and Jaaskelainen unable to get close to the ball as the header is made, almost rooted to the goalline as it went in.
Pirelli Stadium
League 1
5/12/2020 4:00 pm
Attendance: 0
Referee: Andy Haines
| Burton Albion | Crewe Alexandra | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hughes | Dale | ||||||
| O'Hara | Jaaskelainen | ||||||
| Brayford | Johnson | 88 | |||||
| Hughes | Beckles | ||||||
| Bostwick | Offord | ||||||
| Daniel | Pickering | ||||||
| Quinn | Lowery | 61 | |||||
| Gilligan | 64 | Wintle | |||||
| Edwards | Murphy | ||||||
| Powell | Dale | ||||||
| Vernam | Mandron | 73 | |||||
| Akins | Powell | 61 | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Garratt | Richards | ||||||
| Wallace | Porter | 73 | |||||
| Lawless | Kirk | 61 | |||||
| Fox | Finney | 61 | |||||
| O'Toole | Zanzala | ||||||
| Gallacher | Lancashire | 88 | |||||
| Ennis | 64 | Sass-Davies | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 8 | Goal attempts | 11 |
| 6 | On Target | 6 |
| 2 | Corners | 8 |
| 16 | Fouls | 13 |
| 3 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 34 | % | 66 |