 | Dean Ashton and Rob Hulse, Both scorers - we think. |
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In what marked the end of a difficult set of games the Alex showed a performance that showed we can play the best and we can beat them/match them. It was a case of who had the finishing both teams allowing each other to pressure and if it wasn't for Ince we could have been 1-0 down straight away. Niave defending from Walton and Foster let Roberts run free on goal but with not much space he tried to pop it round the outcoming Ince who stook out a leg to deny City. Then again some for bad marking found Brian Tinnion cutting inside the right of the box where he smacked a shot into the bottom corner but Ince again got down quickly to tip it onto his post - top notch goalkeeping and is living up to his name as the divisions best keeper.
After that the players started to get a passing rythem with Brammer strutting his stuff in midfield. Vaughan was world class going forward getting past 3 or 4 players everytime and creating chances, also got back to help in defence. Chances for the Alex were few and far between despite having quite abit of the possesion the best being with some very neat passing around the Bristol box squared to Jack who went for power rarther than accuracy and his shot flew over. Then Bristol City really should have got a goal when a cross saw a free header for Tinnion at the far post and it just had to be on target but he smacked it into the advertisement boards, how he missed is anybody's guess. We were then 1-0 up somehow. Bristol gave a needless corner away and from that
 | We're going up as........... champions! |
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corner Ashton powered a header at goal and into the back of the net with thanks to Foster for helping it on its way.
Ashton was on fire today running tirelessly for balls time and time again... ones which were lost causes. He also troubled the Bristol defence with his neat touches and little shoulder drops - one which saw his shot drift wide from 20 yards. Vaughan though got his 20 yard shot on target where Phillips is goal pulled off an excellent parry but he parried it into Hulse who volleyed it into the City net, we were only the second league team to score there and we did it twice in 3 minutes. We were 2-0 up and controlling the game. The Alex fans couldn't quite believe it was such a "comfortable" scoreline. The frustration started to show in Bristol City when Brammer was brought down with a late tackle and went down in agony but somehow managed to carry on.
After four straight wins and leading high flying Bristol City 2-0 confidence
 | Goal number two! |
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couldn't have been higher around Crewe but in the second half Dario got his tactics wrong as the Alex came out to defend a 2 goal lead against a team who turned a 4-2 defeat into a 5-4 win within 3 minutes last week.
Bristol City huffed and puffed for 10 minutes after the break, they dominated the first half, then got the goal which put worry back into Alex fans. the pacey Scott Murray got down the left and inside for box to put the ball past Ince. Just as Alex fans came to terms with that Hulse got knocked to the floor clutching his face as he went for the ball with his head while coming from another direction was the keep with his fists. After a couple of minutes 19 goal star was back on his feet.
Despite the goal the players still felt the need to defend. There were no chances to speak of for the Alex in the second half and with us defending the second goal was always going to come. 4 minutes from time and Bristol City brought it back when a long high ball bounced around the box with Lunt and Tierney trying to catch the bounce Brown brought it down to fire into the bottom right corner. It wasn't defending then! David Wright brought it forward for Lunt to cross and Hulse to header. Then with the ball bouncing around in the box Sorvel, who came on for Ashton, powered a shot at goal but the keeper somehow pulled off a top class save to deny Sorvel and the rebound from Hulse was finally gathered by Phillips in net. Sorvels 20 yard shot went over and Brammers close
 | D'oh! |
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range shot from the left post skied over. It could have been Bristol CIty who got the winner though if it wasn't for their strikers who kept getting the ball trapped under their feet. The match ended 2-2 and although the gap between us and Bristol City stays the same the gap between us and QPR, Luton and Plymouth is quite big at 5 points. So we're closer to 4th place than 6th which is a plus(?).
We've got a couple of weeks off from league football as Crewe hope to bang in the goals against Mansfield(FA Cup) and Doncaster(LDV Vans) to gain even more confidence. Then on the 14th it's back to league football with crisis club Barnsley who aren't exactly flying like most thought.
Yesturdays game was the end of the long hard run and now we face nine teams from the bottom half of the table in next 11 games our hardest test are the Oldham home and away game which come within less than a month of each
 | Hulse : 19 goals and counting |
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other. Should we win those 9 "easy" ones we will be staring Cardiff in the face, or maybe they'll be staring at us. However that is optimistic after early season defeats.