Crewe 2 Bradford 1
Well, this game might not have had the added attraction of Sian Massey, the assistant referee maligned by Messrs Gray and Keys but, by God, it had just about everything else. Ms Massey was withdrawn from duty by her bosses in order to prevent the game becoming incidental to the Sian Massey show. A wise move, especially after Andy Gray was sacked by BSkyB in the afternoon. The numerous journalists and Press officers descending on Crewe ended up with a show without Punch. Although they did get a show with a headbutt, ironically.
Having heard the news that Sian Massey was out, attention turned to the pitch. Dario made two changes to the Crewe line-up, recalling Murphy in place of Shelley and calling up Phillips for the suspended Taylor. No major tinkering there, despite the hints that he might rest one of the strikers. Bradford meanwhile had signed a lad from Oldham that very day and threw him straight into the team. He was to have quite an impact, but not in a good way...
Crewe were almost caught out early on, when former Alex trainee Gareth Evans found time and space to hit a shot, but with only the keeper to beat, he dragged his effort narrowly wide. After that, it was pretty much normal service for Crewe as Bradford struggled to cope with the pace and movement of Crewe's front three. Donaldson and Moore in particular were getting a lot of joy against the Bradford defence, who seemingly didn't have much answer. After fifteen minutes Crewe deservedly took the lead when Miller found time and space in the area to deliver a low cross which was easily tapped in by Donaldson. After that, Crewe dominated and spurned several chances to increase their lead. And they were made to pay when a rare Bradford attack resulted in a free kick outside the area. Bradford worked a training ground routine to perfection to give Duff a simple header to level the scores. Parity was to last only a minute or so though as Crewe went ahead again with a "Route One" goal. The ball was knocked back to keeper Phillips who launched it upfield. The Bradford defenders let the ball bounce and Moore nipped in to take it beyond them and slip it past the advancing Bradford keeper.
Just before half time, the game took a major turn. The aforementioned Worthington clattered into the back of Donaldson and appeared to stamp at him while he was on the ground. Donaldson reacted furiously, jumping up and confronting the Bradford player. Their heads came together as they stood eyeball-to-eyeball. Donaldson leaned in and that was it. You can't lead with your head and the ref had little option but to send Donaldson off. Worthington escaped with only a booking to his name and must have thought he'd got off lightly. Less than a minute later that was more confusion and uproar as Bradford defender O'Brien went straight through the back of Matt Tootle with a disgraceful challenge. In the melee that followed afterwards, the referee issued Evans with a second booking and sent him off but then changed his mind and instead showed O'Brien a yellow card. From the stands it looked like he'd got that all wrong - O'Brien's challenge was worthy of a red card and Evans deserved a second booking for kicking the ball away. Given his earlier failure to send Worthington off, a few round us were beginning to think the ref had travelled on the Bradford bus... His assistant wasn't much help either - perhaps Sian wouldn't have let the Bradford players and management badger the ref into changing his mind? whatever, they officials left the field at half-time to a resounding chorus of boos.
Although Crewe are usually quite poor at defending a lead, they came out in the second half and lined up with virtually everyone behind the ball. Miller was left on his own up front at it was all hand to the pump as Bradford laid siege to the Crewe goal, trying to make their numerical advantage count. To be fair, although the Crewe defence looked shaky at times, they were mostly restricting Bradford to long-range shots, and when they did get close in Phillips was up to the task. Crewe were still creating chances on the counter-attack and missed one glorious chance to extend their lead following some great play by Tootle and Moore. Otherwise it was backs-to-the-wall stuff. Luckily, Bradford were pretty dreadful and you can see why they haven't scored many - a phrase involving a cow's arse and a banjo springs to mind....
At the end though, after a very nervy second 45 minutes, there was a massive roar when the referee blew for time. Crewe had defended valiantly and held on to win and take the three points. With the other teams around them drawing or losing, Crewe's three points boosted them up to third in the table. There's a long way to go, of course, and they'll be without Donaldson for three games now, but there's a sniff of promotion in the air and Crewe fans are starting to think that maybe Dario Gradi really is a football genius. I guess we'll find out on Saturday when Accrington come to town. If Crewe can beat them without Donaldson, even I might start dreaming the dream....
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