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.