Crewe 0 Rotherham 1
Having not managed to fit in the "lucky" walk before any of Crewe's previous defeats, I was off out early on Saturday morning for another yomp round Bickerton Hills. This time we (myself and my mate Charlie) took the same loop as before the seven nil thrashing of Barnet, but in reverse. That is, we walked it in the opposite direction, not walked backwards... In the reverse direction, the loop starts with a steep descent then climbs to the top of Rawhead before descending back to the starting point. In terms of manageability for unfit, fat bastards like me, it's a lot easier than finishing with the steep descent. In terms of luck, the gods clearly demand more effort and I should have walked it in the original direction.
Mind you, the way Crewe played on Saturday afternoon, I don't think it would have helped if I'd walked it a couple more times. They were pretty dire. Rotherham got off to a flying start and were ahead after less than two minutes when Crewe defender Dugdale knocked a corner into his own net. After that, Rotherham dominated the game and could have been out of sight before the twenty minute mark was reached. Luckily, they weren't and Crewe had a glorious chance to level the scores when Westwood went through with only the keeper to beat. Unfortunately Westwood dragged his shot just wide of the far post. Donaldson then saw a snap shot well saved by the Rotherham keeper but that was about the sum total of the Crewe efforts on goal in the first half. Meanwhile Rotherham looked comfortable and threatened every time they had a corner. Crewe's switch to three at the back was not doing them any favours. In the end we were all slightly relieved to get to half time trailing by a single goal.
Dario isn't one for making changes at half time, and to be fair, he had few options available to him on the bench. The second half saw a better display from the Alex, but they weren't creating anyway near enough chances to threaten an equaliser. and when Dugdale did force the Rotherham keeper into action, the referee awarded a goal-kick instead of the obvious corner. Mind, the ref wasn't having a great game - a couple of times in the second half he awarded what looked like harsh free-kicks and then almost immediately gave a free-kick the other way to even things up. No arguing about the penalty decision., though. Ada was bean by a deep cross and had his hand up when the striker headed it back across. Definite handball. Fortunately, Taylor made a superb save from Le Fondre's spot kick to keep the score at nil one. despite that let-off Crewe couldn't make the most of it and the game ended with Rotherham looking fairly comfortable.
Disappointing. Hard to tell though whether Crewe played that badly or Rotherham made them look poor. Certainly Rotherham look a decent team, perhaps the best that we've seen at Gresty Road so far this season. And that lucky walk route is clearly now off the list. Might have to try to seven nil direction next time I get out to the hills. But that won't be this weekend when I'm off to Bridlington for a long-arranged trip to see Status Quo, or next weekend when Charlie is in Edinburgh. Might have to have a stroll along the canal or something instead.....
Tuesday 23 November 2010
Tuesday 16 November 2010
Inside My Glass of Hours
Gillingham 1 Crewe 3
Some comedy capers with ongoing foot knack following my trip to Tamworth and long night with old friends dissuaded me from making the 450-mile round trip to Gillingham. So I was reduced to listening to the game on crackle-heavy Medium Wave, courtesy of Radio Stoke. Sounded like a good game, from the Crewe perspective. The away side should, by all accounts, have been ahead long before Gillingham were reduced to ten men following the sending-off of debutant Callum Davies. After the sending-off Crewe took control of the game and went ahead courtesy of an accidental goal from Byron Moore. For all his good work against the Gillingham full-backs he was getting no reward until a cross was missed by the defender and ricocheted in off Moore's shoulder. Fair play to Gillingham though - they didn't crumble. After seeing one goal chalked off for offside, they forced Crewe' keeper Rhys Taylor into action a couple of times. Just before the break Donaldson added to the total. Moore surged down the left, beating the full-back, and pulled the ball back to Donaldson, who spun and placed a shot in at the far post. Two nil, and that should have been that.
Still, they are Crewe and in the second half they conceded an early goal to set the nerves jangling again.Gills pushed hard for an equaliser but Crewe weathered the storm. In the end, as the Gills ran out of steam, Crewe notched a third as Murphy set Miller free down the middle and he finished with aplomb to hand Crewe the win.
So another three points on the road and Crewe climbing back up the table, albeit only by a couple of places. Another tricky game coming up though, at home to Rotherham, who are going well this season. Not going for my lucky walk though, so it could be another defeat. :-(
Some comedy capers with ongoing foot knack following my trip to Tamworth and long night with old friends dissuaded me from making the 450-mile round trip to Gillingham. So I was reduced to listening to the game on crackle-heavy Medium Wave, courtesy of Radio Stoke. Sounded like a good game, from the Crewe perspective. The away side should, by all accounts, have been ahead long before Gillingham were reduced to ten men following the sending-off of debutant Callum Davies. After the sending-off Crewe took control of the game and went ahead courtesy of an accidental goal from Byron Moore. For all his good work against the Gillingham full-backs he was getting no reward until a cross was missed by the defender and ricocheted in off Moore's shoulder. Fair play to Gillingham though - they didn't crumble. After seeing one goal chalked off for offside, they forced Crewe' keeper Rhys Taylor into action a couple of times. Just before the break Donaldson added to the total. Moore surged down the left, beating the full-back, and pulled the ball back to Donaldson, who spun and placed a shot in at the far post. Two nil, and that should have been that.
Still, they are Crewe and in the second half they conceded an early goal to set the nerves jangling again.Gills pushed hard for an equaliser but Crewe weathered the storm. In the end, as the Gills ran out of steam, Crewe notched a third as Murphy set Miller free down the middle and he finished with aplomb to hand Crewe the win.
So another three points on the road and Crewe climbing back up the table, albeit only by a couple of places. Another tricky game coming up though, at home to Rotherham, who are going well this season. Not going for my lucky walk though, so it could be another defeat. :-(
Wednesday 10 November 2010
The Party's Over
Carlisle 3 Crewe 1
Johnstone Paints Trophy 3rd Rnd Northern Section
Having flopped out of the FA Cup on Saturday, many supporters were looking to this Johnstone Paints Trophy game to keep their season alive. How realistic was that? Away to a side a league above us and with the leaders in the team (Bell and Artell) being rested.....
I didn't go because, as mentioned before, I don't really care about the JPT. I was watching Nantwich Town outplay Cammell Laird in the Cheshire Senior Cup. That was a decent game although Nantwich did shoot themselves in the foot by giving away a comedy goal in the first minute. Once they got back in the game there was only going to be one winner. Mind they did have to endure a nervy last ten minutes or so when they were reduced to ten men. No foul play involved this time but they'd made all their substitutions and then Kyle Blake was unable to continue and went off injured. Lairds pulled a goal back with a couple of minutes to go but if they'd got another to force the game into extra time it would have been a travesty. Nantwich could, indeed should, have been out of sight before the 70 minute mark. Still, they won and that's the main thing.
Unlike Crewe, who didn't win. Accounts of the performance vary but all mention Donaldson's woeful finishing and Crewe's re-discovered fallibility at set-pieces (corners and free-kicks). No surprise with either to be honest. Your main defensive organiser gets the night off, and the defence falls apart. Shock! As for Donaldson - if he could score every chance he gets, he wouldn't still be with us after two and a bit seasons. He is, at least, still getting into the positions to miss the chances. Let's hope he gets into position to have a few chances on Saturday.
Johnstone Paints Trophy 3rd Rnd Northern Section
Having flopped out of the FA Cup on Saturday, many supporters were looking to this Johnstone Paints Trophy game to keep their season alive. How realistic was that? Away to a side a league above us and with the leaders in the team (Bell and Artell) being rested.....
I didn't go because, as mentioned before, I don't really care about the JPT. I was watching Nantwich Town outplay Cammell Laird in the Cheshire Senior Cup. That was a decent game although Nantwich did shoot themselves in the foot by giving away a comedy goal in the first minute. Once they got back in the game there was only going to be one winner. Mind they did have to endure a nervy last ten minutes or so when they were reduced to ten men. No foul play involved this time but they'd made all their substitutions and then Kyle Blake was unable to continue and went off injured. Lairds pulled a goal back with a couple of minutes to go but if they'd got another to force the game into extra time it would have been a travesty. Nantwich could, indeed should, have been out of sight before the 70 minute mark. Still, they won and that's the main thing.
Unlike Crewe, who didn't win. Accounts of the performance vary but all mention Donaldson's woeful finishing and Crewe's re-discovered fallibility at set-pieces (corners and free-kicks). No surprise with either to be honest. Your main defensive organiser gets the night off, and the defence falls apart. Shock! As for Donaldson - if he could score every chance he gets, he wouldn't still be with us after two and a bit seasons. He is, at least, still getting into the positions to miss the chances. Let's hope he gets into position to have a few chances on Saturday.
My Cup Runneth Over
Tamworth 2 Crewe 1
FA Cup 1st Round
Generally, if you want to progress in the FA Cup the last thing you want in the first round is a tie away to non-league opposition. Lowly non-leaguers at your place, yes. Teams from the league below at their place, no. And so it proved for Crewe. Approximately 12 months after going out to York at their ground, Crewe were dumped out of the competition by Tamworth at their place.
Can't say Tamworth didn't deserve it. They were the better side for large parts of the match, scored a superb second goal and defended manfully when Crewe threw everything at them for the last ten minutes. In truth the margin could have been greater, but then it also could have been a very different result if Donaldson had put away either of the one-on-ones he had with the keeper before half-time or Grant had done the same with two chances he had in the first 45 minutes.
Tamworth's recent league form had been pretty dismal, but on their own patch, with the crowd behind them, they found an extra gear and took on Crewe in all areas on the park. They'd done their homework, of course, and played with an extra man in midfield to close down our midfielders and restrict their time and space. It wasn't entirely effective, as Westwood and Moore both managed to create chances for Donaldson, but it largely worked. And following the pattern of the recent defeats against Port Vale and Shrewsbury, Crewe were on the back foot fairly early on as they conceded an avoidable goal after about fifteen minutes. A deep cross was missed by Taylor and Tamworth's Rodman (that's his name by the way, not his position) smashed in a shot off the despairing lunge of Artell. One nil and the upset was very much on the cards. Crewe though weren't going to roll over and have their tummies tickled. Donaldson, Grant and Donaldson all wasted good chances to level. But like the last couple of weeks - the difference between creating the chances and taking the chances was what decided the game.
In the second half Crewe came out firing and looked to put pressure on the home side. And it was slightly against the run of play that Tamworth increased their lead. A decent attack was broken up by the midfielders snapping back but a heavy touch from Ada gave Thomas the time and space to curl a peach of a shot over Taylor and into the far top corner. A great goal and one worthy of winning any game. It certainly seemed to have won the game as Crewe looked very deflated. To be fair, Dario Gradi made some rapid changes with Blanchett replacing Mitchell-King and Leitch-Smith on for the ineffective Joel Grant, but Crewe struggled to carve out any clear cut chances. As the match drew to a close they managed three shots in fairly quick succession but the Tamworth keeper only had to make one decent save. Westwood pulled a goal back with two minutes of normal time left after there was confusion in the Tamworth penalty area and he poked home at the far post but even with five minutes of injury time, Crewe couldn't find another way through the Tamworth rearguard and were deservedly dumped out of the Cup at the first time of asking.
FA Cup 1st Round
Generally, if you want to progress in the FA Cup the last thing you want in the first round is a tie away to non-league opposition. Lowly non-leaguers at your place, yes. Teams from the league below at their place, no. And so it proved for Crewe. Approximately 12 months after going out to York at their ground, Crewe were dumped out of the competition by Tamworth at their place.
Can't say Tamworth didn't deserve it. They were the better side for large parts of the match, scored a superb second goal and defended manfully when Crewe threw everything at them for the last ten minutes. In truth the margin could have been greater, but then it also could have been a very different result if Donaldson had put away either of the one-on-ones he had with the keeper before half-time or Grant had done the same with two chances he had in the first 45 minutes.
Tamworth's recent league form had been pretty dismal, but on their own patch, with the crowd behind them, they found an extra gear and took on Crewe in all areas on the park. They'd done their homework, of course, and played with an extra man in midfield to close down our midfielders and restrict their time and space. It wasn't entirely effective, as Westwood and Moore both managed to create chances for Donaldson, but it largely worked. And following the pattern of the recent defeats against Port Vale and Shrewsbury, Crewe were on the back foot fairly early on as they conceded an avoidable goal after about fifteen minutes. A deep cross was missed by Taylor and Tamworth's Rodman (that's his name by the way, not his position) smashed in a shot off the despairing lunge of Artell. One nil and the upset was very much on the cards. Crewe though weren't going to roll over and have their tummies tickled. Donaldson, Grant and Donaldson all wasted good chances to level. But like the last couple of weeks - the difference between creating the chances and taking the chances was what decided the game.
In the second half Crewe came out firing and looked to put pressure on the home side. And it was slightly against the run of play that Tamworth increased their lead. A decent attack was broken up by the midfielders snapping back but a heavy touch from Ada gave Thomas the time and space to curl a peach of a shot over Taylor and into the far top corner. A great goal and one worthy of winning any game. It certainly seemed to have won the game as Crewe looked very deflated. To be fair, Dario Gradi made some rapid changes with Blanchett replacing Mitchell-King and Leitch-Smith on for the ineffective Joel Grant, but Crewe struggled to carve out any clear cut chances. As the match drew to a close they managed three shots in fairly quick succession but the Tamworth keeper only had to make one decent save. Westwood pulled a goal back with two minutes of normal time left after there was confusion in the Tamworth penalty area and he poked home at the far post but even with five minutes of injury time, Crewe couldn't find another way through the Tamworth rearguard and were deservedly dumped out of the Cup at the first time of asking.
Friday 5 November 2010
Stripmining
Crewe 1 Shrewsbury 2
Following defeat in the local derby against Port Vale, Crewe had a chance to show some bouncebackability at home to Shrewsbury. Sadly, that all went titsup after about five minutes when a mix up between defender Ada and goalkeeper Taylor led to Ada poking the ball past the keeper to give Matt Wright a simple tap-in at the far post and put the Shrews one up. That took the wind right out of Crewe's sails and they struggled to make an impact on the game for much of the first half. Indeed they were lucky not to fall further behind when Shrewsbury struck the post and then the bar in quick succession. Gradually Crewe got a foothold in the game but with Donaldson failing to hold the ball up front (mainly due to Geoghegan persistently fouling him, in my opinion) the play was disjointed and tended to break down once the ball was played forward. It was notable, however, that Shrewsbury were quite happy to play for time and seemed to be settling for the one nil win well before half time.
In the second half Crewe changed their system a little and started to get a foothold in the game. and even managed to level the game fairly quickly. Donaldson lost the ball out wide on the left but Miller came bustling in to win it back. Miller's tidy pass sent Donaldson into the are and he held the ball up for the supporting Miller to run onto and slide past the goalkeeper. After that Crewe were pretty much in charge of the game. However, for all their good work and positive play, they were creating little in front of goal. Donaldson was struggling against the man-mountain Geoghegan and Miller's first touch let him down far too often. The midfield were still being out-muscled and Shrews posed a threat on the counter-attack. A threat fully realised when Ada tripped Robinson in the area to give Shrewsbury a penalty. Luckily for Ada, Taylor got both hands to Robinson's poor spot-kick and Blanchett completed the clearance to keep the scores level. Having survived that scare, both Donaldson and Moore should have done better when given shooting chances. And then, in a crucial turning point, Donaldson beat the offside trap and was through, albeit out wide on the right. Shrewsbury keeper Neal rushed out to try to avert the danger and Donaldson went down under his challenge. To be fair, I thought Donaldson went down a little easily and as the foul was wide and outside the box it could be argued it wasn't a goal-scoring opportunity, but I was still disappointed to see the referee only produce a yellow card. Insult followed injury, so to speak, as Crewe wasted the resulting free-kick.
As the game drifted towards a draw Crewe were caught on the counter-attack but Taylor easily gathered Leslie's weak shot. Sadly, Crewe didn't take notice of that warning and in the 93rd minute were again caught with too many players upfield leaving Shrewsbury with three strikers against our three attackers. Wright, the man with the ball, didn't need his companions as he turned Artell easily and then placed a shot past Taylor from the edge of the area to give the Shrews the win.
There wasn't time for Crewe to respond and so they fell to a second defeat in four days. As with Port Vale, I don't think they deserved that, but if you give daft goals away, I guess you're always going to struggle. Hopefully this is just a blip and they can get back on another unbeaten run, but I'm certainly a lot less confident going in to Saturday's FA Cup game at Tamworth. After that, there are some more tough games to come this month and it could make or break our season. But let's get the FA Cup game out of the way first....
Following defeat in the local derby against Port Vale, Crewe had a chance to show some bouncebackability at home to Shrewsbury. Sadly, that all went titsup after about five minutes when a mix up between defender Ada and goalkeeper Taylor led to Ada poking the ball past the keeper to give Matt Wright a simple tap-in at the far post and put the Shrews one up. That took the wind right out of Crewe's sails and they struggled to make an impact on the game for much of the first half. Indeed they were lucky not to fall further behind when Shrewsbury struck the post and then the bar in quick succession. Gradually Crewe got a foothold in the game but with Donaldson failing to hold the ball up front (mainly due to Geoghegan persistently fouling him, in my opinion) the play was disjointed and tended to break down once the ball was played forward. It was notable, however, that Shrewsbury were quite happy to play for time and seemed to be settling for the one nil win well before half time.
In the second half Crewe changed their system a little and started to get a foothold in the game. and even managed to level the game fairly quickly. Donaldson lost the ball out wide on the left but Miller came bustling in to win it back. Miller's tidy pass sent Donaldson into the are and he held the ball up for the supporting Miller to run onto and slide past the goalkeeper. After that Crewe were pretty much in charge of the game. However, for all their good work and positive play, they were creating little in front of goal. Donaldson was struggling against the man-mountain Geoghegan and Miller's first touch let him down far too often. The midfield were still being out-muscled and Shrews posed a threat on the counter-attack. A threat fully realised when Ada tripped Robinson in the area to give Shrewsbury a penalty. Luckily for Ada, Taylor got both hands to Robinson's poor spot-kick and Blanchett completed the clearance to keep the scores level. Having survived that scare, both Donaldson and Moore should have done better when given shooting chances. And then, in a crucial turning point, Donaldson beat the offside trap and was through, albeit out wide on the right. Shrewsbury keeper Neal rushed out to try to avert the danger and Donaldson went down under his challenge. To be fair, I thought Donaldson went down a little easily and as the foul was wide and outside the box it could be argued it wasn't a goal-scoring opportunity, but I was still disappointed to see the referee only produce a yellow card. Insult followed injury, so to speak, as Crewe wasted the resulting free-kick.
As the game drifted towards a draw Crewe were caught on the counter-attack but Taylor easily gathered Leslie's weak shot. Sadly, Crewe didn't take notice of that warning and in the 93rd minute were again caught with too many players upfield leaving Shrewsbury with three strikers against our three attackers. Wright, the man with the ball, didn't need his companions as he turned Artell easily and then placed a shot past Taylor from the edge of the area to give the Shrews the win.
There wasn't time for Crewe to respond and so they fell to a second defeat in four days. As with Port Vale, I don't think they deserved that, but if you give daft goals away, I guess you're always going to struggle. Hopefully this is just a blip and they can get back on another unbeaten run, but I'm certainly a lot less confident going in to Saturday's FA Cup game at Tamworth. After that, there are some more tough games to come this month and it could make or break our season. But let's get the FA Cup game out of the way first....
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