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.
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