Ben Knight’s stoppage-time winner saw Crewe Alexandra get off to the perfect start in the EFL Trophy with a win over Shrewsbury Town at the New Meadow last night.
Manager David Artell made eight changes from Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Charlton Athletic with Callum McFadzean, Callum Ainley and Oli Finney were the only players to retain their places. New signing Scott Robertson started in midfield while second-year scholar Connor O’Riordan made his first appearance in the first-team squad. Former Alex players Daniel Udoh and loanee Elliott Bennett were on the Shrews bench.
The opening chance of the game came in the 9th minute with Chris Porter heading over before stand-in captain Donervon Daniels would do the same from an Ainley corner on the half-hour.
Finney would have an effort in the opening minute after the break with keeper Harry Burgoyne making the save before the hosts’ best chance came with 20 minutes to play with full-back Nathaniel Ogbeta forcing a save out of Dave Richards. The goal came in the first minute of stoppage-time with substitute Knight firing the ball in from 12 yards out.
Our next couple of games see the Alex travel to Shrewsbury Town on Saturday 11th September in the league before hosting Burton Albion the following Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
Despite it being in the Trophy, it was important to get a win in the competition and finally scored after almost 7 games without a goal (the last coming against Hartlepool in the Carabao Cup 1st Round).
It was great to see Tom Lowery back on the pitch, hopefully that means that he’ll be in the side more often and all of the nonsense that’s been happening over the summer will be resolved over the coming days.