Life is a rollercoaster..

Crewe 1 Derby 0
And lo, it came to pass that, as woefully underwhelming as they had been on Saturday afternoon, the mighty Crewe Alex did rise up and smite down Derby County in the first round of the Carling Cup on Tuesday night. In what turned out to be a decent game of football, Derby (slightly weakened by injuries and absences) got off to a slow start and it was Crewe making all the running early doors. Miller and Donaldson both wasted good chances but Crewe kept on pressing. Old boy Robbie Savage was pulling all the strings for Derby in the middle of the park, but their back four struggled with the pace of Donaldson and the awkwardness of Zola. Our midfield trio of Bell, Westwood and Murphy matched their Derby counterparts and there were great moments of skill and vision on both sides, as the two teams looked to get the ball down and play attractive passing football. As half-time loomed it looked as if Crewe were to go unrewarded for their industry but an overhead flick into the box by Donaldson found defender Shaun Barker under pressure from Zola and heading the ball into his own net.
Derby bought on another old boy, Rob Hulse, after the break, joining Savage, James Bailey and John Brayford in the Ex-Crewe club. With a bit of added firepower now, Derby started to come forward and throw everything at Crewe. But with Artell and Ada standing firm in the middle of defence, Taylor catching everything in goal and the midfield three dropping back, Derby struggled to penetrate the Crewe defence. Crewe managed to occasionally relieve the pressure with counter-attacks but the last ten minutes was virtually all Derby and only some determined defending and excellent goalkeeping kept Derby at bay. As the final whistle went there was an enormous cheer from the Crewe crowd. And some of us went off to celebrate long and a bit too hard....
On reflection, this game was as uplifting as the Hereford game was disappointing. The defence and goalkeeper looked ten times better than they had at the weekend and the midfield trio proved that football-wise they are a match for anyone. It's a shame that we aren't going to play many sides that like to pass it around like Derby do - the lump-and-thump merchants of League 2 will probably just knock us out of the way. Still worried that the strikers haven't notched a goal yet, but that'll come.
That said, next game is away at Cheltenham Town on Saturday and because we ARE Crewe, we'll probably get thumped 3 or 4 nil....