Open Your Heart

Crewe 0 Stevenage 1

For the second consecutive home game, there was no lucky walk pre-match as I was otherwise engaged, disposing of half a tree. The top half of the tree in my back garden was blown down during some high wind recently and had lain in the garden awaiting my attention for a couple of weekends. Having purchased the necessary tools - bow saw, loppers and axe - I set about it with some vigour. Only to find myself knackered after about an hour and a half and with only half the tree dealt with. So I've got another bit of work to do there one weekend.
Anyway, having done some exercise that I felt the gods of luck would be OK with, it was off to the Alexandra Stadium to see my beloved Alex take on Stevenage. I wasn't expecting a feast of football given Crewe's recent form and Stevenage's preferred style of play. Sadly, I wasn't disappointed.
With Shaun Miller not recovering from his thigh injury in time to play, Dario left Byron Moore up front to partner the returning Donaldson and AJ Leitch-Smith was dropped to the bench. Other than that there were no changes from the side that had scraped a draw against Gillingham the previous week. Personally, I'd have moved Moore back to midfield, dropped Shelley and left AJ up front. The reason being that with Moore and Donaldson up front, there was no genuine pace in the middle, meaning that there was no outlet out wide unless the full backs pushed up.
Despite my reservations, Crewe didn't play too badly. They certainly made more chances and if Donaldson had not just had three weeks on the sidelines, he may well have done better with the chance he got in the first half. To be fair, Stevenage keeper Chris Day came out to make a good block, but Donaldson in top form would surely have buried the chance. As it was, the rebound came to Shelley and he somehow manged to put his effort wide as he knocked it back across goal.  Two good chances and neither of them went in. Apart from that there was little action of note in the first half. There was, however, the curious incident of the Stevenage time-out. There had been some talk on the Internet earlier in the week that, at about 28 minutes into the game, a Stevenage player would go down injured and while he was being treated his team-mates would come to the technical area, take on drinks and receive tactical instructions. And lo, it came to pass that at about 26 minutes into the game, a Stevenage player went down for an injury (the cause of which was unseen by me) and the rest of the team came to the technical area, and so on... Most curious. Not strictly against the laws of the game, I suppose - lots of teams take drinks when there's a break in play - but certainly against the spirit. If this is happening on a regular basis, I wonder if the Football League ought to be taking notice...?
Anyway, after a dismal first-half, the feeling round me was that it could only get better and that Crewe would surely score. It didn't and they didn't. Not for the want of trying though. The scoring that is. Moore put a shot into the side netting, saw Day save one shot with his feet and then, when he finally beat the keeper, saw his shot crash back off the underside of the bar and out. Westwood picked up the loose ball and Crewe had a decent shout for handball but the ref waved the appeals away. He also waved away appeals when Leitch-Smith was bundled over late on and when Tootle was fouled in the area. At least in the latter case he can argue that Tootle stayed on his feet and played the ball. Those three decisions certainly confirmed suspicions that the referee didn't like Crewe. (Another great piece of Internet gossip, fact fans.)
Stevenage, of whom the best that can be said is that they were average, meanwhile were doing a fairly decent job of stifling the midfield but they never really looked like carving out chances of their own. Luckily for them, Crewe's rearguard were helping them out every now and again. One shot flashed across the face of goal and that was about the sum total of efforts I can remember from the visitors. Still, in the dying minutes Tootle gave away a cheap corner to let Stevenage have another go. As they'd done all game, they put a man in front of the keeper and profited handsomely as Taylor was impeded trying to clear the ball and ended up punching it into his own net. 99 times out of 100 you'll see them disallowed for a foul on the keeper. Clearly today was the 100th time... Can't say the defence weren't upset about the goal being allowed to stand with both Artell and Bell having furious word with the referee, but  to no avail.
Crewe couldn't muster an equaliser in the little time that remained and Stevenage  took home all three points in what even their most one-eyed fan must regard as a fortuitous victory. Let's face it, it was a game that really deserved to finish as a goalless stalemate. In between the efforts on goal, there were long spells of dreadful football from both sides. If it had been a boxing match, the referee probably could have disqualified both sides for not making an effort.
And talking of the referee, his performance on the field was bad but not as poor as his performance post-match. Walking through the bar with his assistants, he received a fair bit of abuse, some of it over-the-top in my opinion, but there was no need for him to respond in kind. Very poor. Surely not the first time he's had a mouthful from a fan and guarantees he'll get a hostile reception next time he takes charge of a Crewe game. Although, to be honest, I hope there's never a next time.