After a busy Christmas period we go into the new year sitting in a fantastic 11th position. Sitting in 13th before boxing day it was a nice 3-1 win and a 0-0 draw over the Lancs couple that moved us up two place’s.
Friday saw a very young side get a very respectable 3 points. With seven players in Crewe shirts aged 23 and under it must have been the youngest Division One side this season. Burnley were the opposition and were an opposition not to be feared. They bettered us possession wise but they simply weren’t powerful enough up front or defence.
Dean Ashton got the first 10 minutes from half time. Lunt’s corner in was nearly headed out for another corner - strangely enough a Burnley defender kept it in on the byline and in the process gave it straight back to Lunt. Lunt rolled it back to Ashton who showed ‘the Ashton of old’, according to Dario, as he quickly turned, confused two defenders before slotting it in the bottom right corner. It was good evidence for those that say “you can always count on Deano to create abit of magic from nothing”. The goal just didn’t seemed to be coming in a rather dull match.
In the second half Steve Jones simply showed Alex fans how he has been converted from a non-league winger to one of the best Division One strikers. He passed a last minute fitness test with the club saying he was probably only 70% fit. Jones’ agreed with Burnley that it was the season of goodwill. Ashton flicked it down the centre of the pitch from the half way line to the edge of the area, that’s where two Burnley players tackled each other and let the ball run into the path of a charging Jones… Jones’ first touch flicked it over the keeper from the edge of the area.
Tonkin made it an edgy last few minutes when he fell into the trap of Chadwick, Chadwick charged into the area and when Tonks stuck out a foot, and sliced the ball may I add, Chadwick must have tripped over abit of grass as he went flying. The ref gave a penalty and that penalty was sweetly smashed home by Robbie Blake. 2-1 on 88 minutes and Burnley threw everything at us.
Whilst they were throwing everything at us we just held on till it was no more Mr Nice Guy. Wright cleared to Ashton on the half way line, Ashton held it up till Lunt intervened and with the Burnley defence sitting rather shallow on the half way line Lunt simply threaded it behind the defence for Jones to run onto. One-on-One with the keeper Jonah got into the area and curled it round the keeper.
It was the second finish of the day that you just had the feeling he would never have scored 2 years ago. The Irishman grows every match and everyone knows you can’t fault his effort, and now he’s becoming a striker who certainly knows where the net is - it showed early on in the match when he chested it down with his back to goal and quickly turned and smashed the ball at goal, just a few inches wide but shows the confidence and the vision he has in his game now.
At Preston it was more a game which was going to tire the young team. The aim was simply to sit on the draw and hit Preston on the counter attack and hope for the best.
The game showed great similarities to the Burnley one. Preston had the better possession but weren’t exactly the greatest at attacking with few chances to mention. Eddie Lewis’ free-kick in the first 15 minutes was hit inches wide of the far left post.
One man who could have had a few was in a red shirt - Luke Varney. Varney had a decent free header, then was just a second too late as he slid in on a ball that flashed across the goal face, he was too short for a Lunt cross to the far post that bounced over Varney’s outstretched leg and when another Lunt cross found Varney unmarked at the far post he scuffed his volley from 5 yards and was left quite embarrassed.
Dean Ashton forced the Preston keeper into a fine one handed save when Deano smashed a 25 yard thunderbolt at goal. Steve Jones also forced the Preston keeper into a good save in the second half, Billy Jones’ cross was planted on Steve Jones’ head 5 yards from goal - but from point blank range the keeper used his legs to keep it out.
Preston had the most glorious chance when the keeper gave a last minute penalty for handball/push/some money. The penalty was taken by Graham Alexander who had missed just one penalty in 30 takes and Clayton Ince made that 2 in 31 takes. A quite poor penalty saw Incey just need to fall to his right to keep it out. David Wright hoofed the parried ball clear.
The draw saw us, rather surprisingly, move up a place as we finish the year in 11th place. Not bad. We’re 6 points off the play-offs, with a fairly average set of fixtures in the first month of 2004. We’ve shown that our squad depth is much much bigger than any fan would have thought and with first team players like McCready, Moses, Walker, Rix & Sorvel all looking to return from injuries in the next couple of weeks then we will be ready to kick some sh*t soon enough.
Special mentions for the last two games to Dean Ashton, Steve Jones, BILLY Jones and David Wright and for me man of the weekend has to be David Wright.
Here’s to a fantastic 2004 and lets start it as we ended it…..