Substitute Scott Twine’s stoppage-time goal saw Swindon Town complete a comeback against Crewe Alexandra at the County Ground yesterday. Tom Lowery gave the Alex an early lead before Travis Johnson’s own goal had leveled the score.
Manager David Artell made 4 changes from our 2-0 defeat at Peterborough United a fortnight ago as Johnson and Nathan Wood came into the back 4, the latter for his Alex debut, with Lowery was part of the midfield 3 while Charlie Kirk started in the front 3. Out of the team went Anthony Evans, Olly Lancashire and Daniel Powell, who all dropped down to the bench, and Billy Jones while former Alex players Anthony Grant and Gary Roberts were not involved for the hosts.
The opening chance and goal of the game came in the 5th minute with Mika Mandron’s low cross turned in from close range before the striker was denied by Joe Woolacott in the hosts’ goal 3 minutes later. That would be a massive save as the hosts would level the score on 10 minutes with Johnson heading past Dave Richards after a cross from their right before Mandron couldn’t quite turn the ball in from Harry Pickering’s cross.
Into the second half where it was more of the same as the first half, Alex possession without the ruthlessness in front of goal, with Mandron volleying wide from Murphy’s cross on 51 minutes before Richards would deny Brett Pitman on the hour-mark. The Alex were denied a penalty with 20 minutes to play with Owen Dale ready to head in a Kirk cross but was nudged in the back before the hosts scored the winner in the final minute of stoppage-time with substitute Hallam Hope having an effort saved by Richards with Twine the first to the rebound.
The next games for the Alex see 2 home games this week, against Accrington Stanley on Tuesday night before hosting Sunderland next Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
Well, it’s pretty obvious where we need to do better looking forward to future matches and that’s in front of the opposition goal. We had enough opportunities to win the game but a lack of quality, in particular by Mandron, in front of goal was the big thing to take out of the game.
Yes, you could argue that we should have had a penalty for the push on Dale in the second half, but the game should have been put to bed by that stage.