Too Hot

Crewe 8 (EIGHT) Cheltenham 1

Having comprehensively crushed the opposition in the charity quiz up in Hough on Friday night, it was up early for a walk round the classic "Barnet" route up on Bickerton Hills. It's a fair measure of my basic lack of fitness that I still find this route hard work, despite having gone round it a few times this season. This time round, there were a couple of brief pauses up at the top and then it was pretty much non-stop to the finish, including the final killer ascent back up Coppermine Lane. I was pleased to make it all the way up the lane without stopping, although I have to admit we weren't going particularly fast at that point. And clearly the gods of luck were pleased with my progress, for they rewarded me with the most comprehensive victory I've seen since, er, we beat Barnet 7-0 after my first lucky walk.
This was the first of the seven cup finals, that Lee Bell had claimed the team had to face following their woeful defeat at Hereford and whilst most fans were hopeful of victory, most were also sceptical of the team's chances of winning all of them. This feeling grew after seeing the team changes - Murphy out injured, Pat Ada dropped to the bench and Tootle and Grant back in the side. And Taylor back in goal ahead of Phillips. What we, the fans, didn't know was that Cheltenham's back four was about to have a really bad day at the office and their midfield was going to struggle to cope with Crewe's pace and movement.
Crewe started off brightly and after only three minutes, Miller put Donaldson through the offside trap and he duly dispatched his chance to open the scoring. Six minutes later Ashley R Westwood (the young one) chipped a pass over the top of the defence, Donaldson, in an offside position, didn't chase it and Miller nipped past him to knock the ball beyond the keeper and make it 2-0.  A great start, certainly better than I was expecting. It  put me in mind of the Burton game, where Crewe blew them away in the opening half hour. However, unlike Burton, Cheltenham had no answers to the problems posed by Crewe's movement and pace. With Blanchett and Tootle bombing forward from full back, giving the side some of the width it has lacked in recent weeks, Miller, Grant and Shelley were all able to find room in the middle to pick up the ball and use it. Miller was particularly sharp, I thought. On the half hour or so, Shelley  picked up the ball on the right and swung in a beautiful deep pass-cum-cross over the defence, which Donaldson latched on to and knocked past the exposed keeper to put Crewe three up. Three minutes later Crewe finally managed to do to Cheltenham what many other teams have done to them, and score on the counter-attack from a corner. Taylor claimed the corner, rolled it out to Miller and he charged up the field. With the defence back-pedalling frantically, Miller slipped the ball to an unmarked Grant, who flicked it past the keeper for 4-0.  Unbelievable, Jeff.
I was nervous at half-time, thinking back to previous games when Crewe have been comprehensively ahead and then sat back on the lead, with varying consequences. Although Cheltenham had been probably the poorest side I'd seen at Gresty Road, it was not beyond the realms of possibility that Crewe would shoot themselves in the foot.
The nerves increased when Cheltenham pulled a goal back two minutes after the restart. Could be an unlikely comeback be on the cards? Luckily, no. Tootle capped a fine display by latching on to a Shelley pass and getting to the byline and cutting the ball back for young Westwood to tap in from about a foot.  Four goal cushion restored and things just got better and better. Donaldson duly completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot after a careless handball in the area. Then Grant charged at the Cheltenham causing mass panic. He got a fortunate rebound in an attempted tackle to keep possession in the area and the keeper saved his initial shot. Unfortunately for the keeper, the ball rebounded across the area and Grant picked it up again to bury it and notch Crewe's seventh of the game. Finally with a couple of minutes left, Donaldson was brought down in the area for a blatant penalty. Well, we thought it was blatant but the referee took an age to make his mind up. Donaldson graciously handed the ball to Grant who completed his own hat-trick by sending the keeper the wrong way.  Eight goals for the Alex. The first time I've seen the Alex score eight since they thumped Hartlepool in the Auto Windscreens Trophy back in 1995. (I missed the other occasion in recent times when they put 8 past Doncaster in the same competition.) The team rightly deserved the applause they got at the end of the game.
Some people seemed to think there was some significance in the fact that manager Dario Gradi had been at home unwell, but to be honest, I could have been stood on the touchline for the game and Crewe would still have won at a canter. The training ground work, including Donaldson's extra work on his finishing, clearly paid off and the team that Dario undoubtedly picked showed us a glimpse of just how good they can be on their day. Only another six days left for them to be equally good on and here's hoping they can break their dismal away sequence and come back from Barnet with all three points. It won't be easy against a rejuvenated Barnet side that are fighting relegation but if Crewe can be as clinical as they were on Saturday, the dream will still be alive for another week.