Come on Vale, Put up a fight!

Ashton, 2 goals in 2 games

After a 4 month goal draught Ashton has hit form once again smashing in his 2nd goal in 2 games as Vale were left to only having chances from range. The game was end to end stuff but both teams struggled to create anything in the last third of the pitch and most crosses going stray.At the start there was one notable player, David Wright played a magnificant game down the right hand side, mind you Vale gave him alot of space to work in. Other player who played well was Walton who had his best game in months keeping their strikers in his pocket. As i said the chances were more from outside the box but that was when they weren't offside with Brooker and McPhee falling for Fosters and Waltons offside game.The best of the chances in the first half were Crewes, With Hulse's header smacking the up right and Wright firing at the near corner from the left to force Goodlad down to make a save. Fozzy's header wasn't kept down from 5 yards out otherwise it would have been in the back of the net. Jack was dissapointing down the wing with him most of the time refusing to run at the players but he was tightly marked by Port Vale for alot of the game. As for the pitch, it looked heavy and the players were sliding all over the place in crucial positions, not good. The whether wasn't great either with very low fog nearly deleting the far goal from the view of the 2,000 Alex fans. David Vaughan down the left was having a fantasic game as he returned for the first time since we played Vale in the Worthy Cup but did get tired after half time. Vaughan was intially put in as a defender but he got forward and got forward well and wizzed in and out of Vale players alot of times, once went past about 4 players before his shot being blocked from just inside the area. Still though Alex got the best of the attacks with Jack going pace but as usual went for pace on the shot and not direction as it smashed int the side netting. For the whole of the first half Vale were reduced to no decent chances to speak of, Brooker's best chance went flying into the away end while McPhees low shot to the right post was gathered by Ince. There was not much 'football' going on and alot of tough tackling, one notable callnge coming from Alex reject Phil Charnock who totally missed the ball and took Brammers right ankle via a yellow card. At half time Dario had obviously told Walton and Foz to stop the offside game and go in tough as the Alex stepped up the defensive play. However, Crewe were starting to look that tad bit sharper with Vale looking tired after playing nearly three whole hours of football on Tuseday night. Hulse should have made it one-nil a couple of times but balls were knocked abit to far for him to run onto and round the keeper with Goodlad picking up the ball on two occasions where Lunt/Rix

Walon, CreweAlex.com MOTM

knocked it down the centre for Hulse to run on to. Vale were trying to do the same with McPhee but Foster and Walton were both equal to their trick. Rix who was insperational all day had his shot saved by Goodlad, it truly was one of the best saves i've seen in a Crewe match in a long time. It was a Brammer to rix at the far post and from the tightest of angles knocked it towards the top right corner but a superb reflex save saw Goodlad deny Rix of his 2nd FA Cup goal of his career. Dario made a couple of changes, Brining Ashton on for Sorvel which meant Jack had to push back to the right wing so Ashton could partner Hulse up front. It certainly paid off with Ashton bossing his way about inin attack and creating stuff down the left aswell. His first chance was abit like Hulse's where a threaded ball was abit too long. dean then shot wide before he got down the right and into the box and when squared to Lunt Lunt got it just stuck under his feet. Deano had so much more confidence in his play and his ability was slowly coming back, but as he admitted on the radio he's not quite up to scratch just yet. That didn't stop him getting his second goal in as many games though, a ball broke down the left for Jack who had all the space in the world to run into, he cut into the corner of the box before squaring to Deano who faced a defender and as eevryone thought he was going to pass he stuck the ball sweetly into the bottom left hand corner. 1-0 with 5 minutes to go. Charnock then had a long shot from about 30 yards which whistled inches past the left post. Hulse then picked up the ball inside the area and facing a defender he did a couple of neat tricks before trying a pot shot which bounced off the cross bar. That was the last peice of real action as Crewe beat Vale for the 3rd time in 3 months!!! So the Alex are ball no.25. in the Round 2 draw hat tomorrow afternoon at about 3:10pm with a possible tie against Chester, Shrewbury or Maybe Cardiff or Wigan?