Happy House

Port Vale 2 Crewe 1

So, for the first time this season Crewe met Port Vale in a derby match that both sets of fans say isn't a derby, and yet saw the biggest turnout at Vale Park in 9 years and almost 1400 Crewe fans make the short trip south. First, though, I headed north for a few beers in Sandbach. Had a couple in the Red Lion and then went to the Black Bear, which was a bit of a mistake, mainly because it was pretty dead. Still, the beer (Coach House's Dick Turpin) was alright, as was the company. Leaving there, there was just time to grab some nosh from Chatwins and have a cheeky pint in the military Arms before heading off down t' road.
Arriving at "the Wembley of the North" it was straight in and off to the bar to be ripped-off for a  couple of plastic bottles of beer. Despite the price (£3.10 for a 500ml bottle) some Crewe fans decided to shower the rest of us with their beer anyway. Clearly they get too much pocket money....
Anyway, the game kicked off and, as expected, Port Vale were right in Crewe's faces. Griffith earned himself a booking for a lunge on Westwood after just two minutes and that would come back to haunt him later. The opening passage of play were scrappy and Mitchell-King, in at right-back was having a torrid time against Loft. And Loft it was who was given time to whack in a cross on to Dodds' head for the opening goal. After that the Vale seemed to go into their shells a bit and Crewe began to create openings. But every time they got a chance they either took the wrong option or shot tamely, until Donaldson teed up Westwood for a volley that former Crewe keeper Tomlinson did wonderfully well to keep out. Things just weren't dropping for Crewe and even when Tomlinson blundered they couldn't force the ball home.  As the half drew to a close most Crewe fans were still confident that the side could get something out of the game.
Port Vale started the second half looking to put the game to bed but Crewe saw off their challenge and, having adapted to match Vale's formation began to dominate the game. Unfortunately, they were still lacking a cutting edge up front until Miller came on after 55minutes or so. Almost immediately he set up Moore, who saw Tomlinson block his shot. Several minutes later Miller himself put a 25-yarder just past the post. But then, for the Alex at least, disaster struck. Another former Alex player, Roberts, pinched the ball off Artell and charged towards the penalty area. Taylor came out to block the loose ball and Roberts went over him, somewhat theatrically, it has to be said.. It looked like Taylor had got a hand to the ball first, but the referee pointed to the spot. Marc Richards sent Taylor the wrong way to put the Vale two ahead. Crewe had a mountain to climb. As the Alex poured forward  trying to get back into the game, they were handed a lifeline when Griffith handled a throw in the penalty area. The referee pointed to the spot, but also produced a second yellow for Griffith which left the Vale down to ten men with about ten minutes to go. Donaldson reduced the arrears by smashing the penalty into the top corner. Crewe huffed and puffed for the last ten minutes trying to make their one man advantage pay but were guilty of some poor-decision making and some woeful shooting. Lee Bell wasted a glorious chance when putting a free-kick well over from just outside the box. Then Tomlinson made another good save to deny Ada from close range, before Miller tried an audacious (and some would say ridiculous) overhead kick, which landed on the roof of the net. And that was pretty much that. The Vale held on to win the non-derby derby and the bragging rights, at least for the next few months.
Overall, I was a bit disappointed with the result but, credit to Port Vale, they were a decent side. Definitely one of the better sides we've played so far, and they were apparently without their two influential wingers. That said, we had Tootle playing on the left due to Blanchett's absence and I think he might have coped better with Loft than Mitchell-King did. Mind once we switched to 3 at the back Ada didn't seem to have too much trouble from him...  Still, that's the game done and dusted and unfortunately the good run has come to an end, but as Dario said afterwards, we have to start another one now. Dario was at least measured and composed in his post-match interview unlike Micky Adams', the Port Vale manager, who just came across as a childish, spiteful chump.
Let's let that go, though - there's still two-thirds of the season to go and nothing's ever decided in October. Onwards and back upwards as Crewe take on third-placed Shrewsbury on Tuesday night. Time to show some bouncebackability.