The biggest gate of the season were entertained today, not only did Crewe win, not only did Jones score his first Alex goalsand on his home debut but we ripped apart 2nd place QPR. QPR fans came out in force bringing just over 1,700 and came confident of taking something from the game. Crewe though were up for it and it showed. With Sorvel pulling out ill late on it was Rix who would get a starting place. Queens Park Rangers were the ones to start the brightest. About 3 corners went in early on, one from a nervy Walker who hit the ball accross the face of the goal needlessly, but all were cleared and it showed Crewe had csome competition today. Crewe though started to take control of the game after they got use to the continuing long balls from QPR, but it gave Crewe a chance to get it on the floor and pass it about with QPR not knowing what to do. The first good chance for Crewe was a header down at goal from Walker, from a corner, the keeper spilt it to Hulse and Walker but after a scramble with 2 QPR defenders Walker could just roll it into the keepers arms. Crewe came close yet again with their next corner when a flick on from Hulse saw Fozzy diving in to head at goal - the ball was smacked clear and in the process QPR defender was injured after a clash with Foster. Before that a looping header from Hulse from a long Sodje throw nearly caught the keeper out, and a long cross from Wright also kept the keeper on his toes as it nearly crept into the top right hand corner.  | Brammer and Lunt At Their Best? |
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However it was Jones who opened the scoring. a long ball clearence found its way to Hulse just outside the area, Shittu and Forbes looked to have the bouncing ball under control but they didn't and with the keeper off the line coming wto collect the ball and Hulse looking round to see where the ball it was Jones ran through the group of players to pick up the ball and with his left foot smack the ball home into the near corner - he loved it and the fans loved it. From then on the Alex just plonked pressure on QPR for the rest of the match. Hulsey nearly continued his impressive scoring run, now 5 in 5, when he latched onto a Dave Brammer cross with a bullet header just inside the area - it looked in but it had clipped the top of the net and was over. Moments later Hulse really should have got his 8th goal of the season when he raced away from the hoops' defence and one-on-one with the keeper Hulse was odds on to score but with the keeper spreading himself well all Rob could do was hit it into the arms of DibleyAn injury scare came when Lunt when in to block the keepers clearence missed and clattered to the floor, landing on his head. . After a few moments of a scare Lunt got up and took his place on the pitch again. Lunt came back on a nearly scored from 25 yards but Shittu's head got in the way of it reaching the net. Crewe went in ahead at 1-0 and the last 15 minutes were electric with the crowd getting behind Crewe all the way and drowning out the QPR fans.  | Steve Jones' first Goals Of His Alex Career |
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The Alex started the second half the way they left the first, out playing QPR. Jack came to life and troubled the R's defence with every ball - like most teams they didn't know what to do with his pace, but along with Jack Jones kept beating the offside rule to chase balls all day. Jones and Jack were really causing trouble for the hopeless QPR defence. The first chance saw Sodje's header from Rix's corner smacked the cross bar and down Hulse's rebound got blocked and cleared. Jones nearly got his second when his pace got the better of QPR and free on goal only for Digby to stand tall and stop his shot. The 2nd goal came after moments of heart stopping stuff. Jack broke free down the left - apparently offside in his own half according to QPR - ripped up QPR's left sided players, got into the box, pulled it back for Hulse who let it run for Jones who ouzed confidence to fire it into the bottom right hand corner. The Northern Irish born forward was loving it! The fans were loving it aswell as the ground errupted. Jack nearly gave Bell his second goal of the season but his cross was too high for the on rushing young midfielder. The spirits of the Alex were high and not even the dissapointment of Wright giving away a penalty could have stopped the Alex and 'Trinidads Number One' as Furlongs penalty was calmly smothered by Ince - in other words, shit penalty. Ashton and Little came on for Rix and Jones who both went off to a 'happy applause' from the home crowd. Crewe just held up the ball and sailed to a comfortable 3 points to show we are good enough to go up and go up with style. |