This Is The One

Crewe 2 Port Vale 1
After the frustrating defeat at Vale Park back in October, this was the return that everyone had been looking forward to. I try to keep a lid on it - after all we don't get any more points for beating the team down the road rather than a team at the other end of the country.  And the season is decided over the course of 46 games and not 2 local derbys.
That said, I was concerned enough to re-try the "Barnet" route for my lucky walk on Saturday morning. It's a circular trek round the Sandstone trail, starting and ending in Coppermine Lane. The Barnet route gets most of the ascents out of the way early, going up to Rawhead before descending (mostly) to the final, killer, stretch uphill along the lane. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised at how much easier it seemed than the last time I walked that route, but then I am about 21 pounds lighter and wasn't hungover and sleepy after a long night on the ale....
Anyway, walk done, I then had my lucky crash out on the sofa for an hour, before heading off up to the game with Charlie, my walkmeister. We got up there fairly early to find that there was already a decent queue outside the ticket office. Once Charlie had got his ticket , we headed into the ground. It was probably a good job we'd got there early as  there  was obviously a lot of part-time fans (including Charlie) who'd turned out for the game. We took our seats (well, actually, probably someone else's seats on this occasion, but we always sit there) and took in the atmosphere before kick-off. Most of which involved peering down Gresty Road from our lofty perch and pointing out the police cars that were swarming round there...
The game itself was a strange affair. Port Vale, under new manager Jim Gannon and missing key players through injury, seemed to have set themselves up to take a draw and Crewe's much-admired passing game was proving strangely ineffective. For all the possession they had in the first half, Crewe didn't really create that many chances. That said, only one side looked like they were going to score and Shaun Miller duly put the Railwaymen ahead in the 18th minute. Some neat interplay saw Donaldson feed the ball to Miller inside the penalty area. He was allowed to turn and put a shot across the goal. Port Vale keeper Tomlinson was a bit slow going down and was beaten by the bounce as the ball  went in at the far post. Cue delirium amongst the Crewe fans. After that it was mostly Crewe in the ascendancy and at half-time we were beginning to wonder if the team might pay the price for not making more of their dominance.
It was certainly something that came back to haunt them just before the hour mark, as a hopelessly optimistic header back to the keeper from Blanchett, left Taylor in no-mans land and he ended up clattering through striker Justin Richards to leave the referee no option but to award a penalty. No controversy over this one though, unlike our two previous meetings. Richards dusted himself down and calmly sent Taylor the wrong way from the spot to give Port Vale a foothold in the game that they scarcely deserved. Further calamity followed for Crewe when defensive lynchpin Artell limped off injured not long after. His replacement, Dugdale, had had a poor game last time out, so the Alex faithful weren't too optimistic. How wrong we were. Dugdale was untroubled by the relatively toothless Vale strikers and proved to be a useful addition at set pieces. Having worked his way into a good position to head one corner, he then timed his run to perfection as Crewe worked a short corner routine.  Both he and Miller celebrated as they'd arrived at the same time to nod the ball in at the far post past a despairing dive from Tomlinson. Having watched the replay several times, it's still not clear who does get the final touch but the goal has been given to Dugdale and that's good enough for me. I'm sure Miller will score a few more this season while I'm not convinced Dugdale will.
After the second goal, it was really a case of playing out time. Vale never looked remotely like getting a second goal and, to be honest, they could have conceded more. When the final whistle went, there was elation all around (apart from the Vale fans sat behind me) and the team thoroughly deserved their ovation as they left the field.
To be fair, the Vale are on a fairly poor run of form, have just got a new manager in and were missing three or four key players. Even so, they were much worse than I expected. Rob Taylor on the wing caused Tootle problems all game and Richards was an occasional threat but apart from that there was little menace in the team and their back four and keeper were having a very off day. Some of that, of course, was down to the pace and movement of Crewe's front three - Moore, Donaldson and Miller - who will trouble any defence in League Two. Still, never mid, it's another win and four out of five for 2011. It also ups the win ratio for the lucky walks which is now at W5 D1 L1.
Next up for Crewe is a trip to Aldershot, which will be another test for them. I won't be going as am out celebrating a couple of friends' birthdays. On the other hand I will be off out tonight (Wednesday) to watch Crewe at home in the FA Youth Cup against Leeds, so that makes up for it.