 | Welsh Wizard - Man Of The Match. Vaughhhhhhany |
|
A great footballing game which saw Crewe take Forest and tear them to pieces. Forest came to Gresty Road sitting 3rd in the table with a realistic chance of going top of the league. They were missing David Johnson who broke his leg last week but on paper Marlon Harewood and Gareth Taylor didn’t look bad up front. Crewe lined up with Tonkin losing his place. Vaughany recovered from a knee injury to regain the left back spot. Other than that it was unchanged.
Forest packed out the away end with 2,100 loud fans. The first ten minutes were Forest with us up to our usual counter attacking style early on. The best chance came a few minutes in when a long ball over the top of the Alex defence was brought down inside the area by Harewood. As Harewood lined up a shot Vaughan ran in from behind and chest it out of harms way before booting clear.
As Dario predicted pre-match the game was open after 10 minutes with teams attacking each other. Ince stopped Gareth Taylor tapping in a Reid cross. Reid curled it low across goal but as Taylor was about to tap it in Ince parried it clear. The save led to a bad injury to Ince’s knee but after a few worrying moments Ince shook it off, thankfully.
A Lunt free kick was knocked wide from 5 yards by Ashton after the ball came as a surprise to Deano with Jones missing a flick on header. After that Lunt sent the ball flying over from a curling free-kick.
After 30 minutes confidence was found and little flicks, back heels and long passes were going our way as we carved through Forest when on the attack. However we rode our luck in some play. Forest were causing trouble down their right with Vaughan and Rix drifiting abit too far in field and when Reid made a charge inside the box David Wright obviously had a fist full of Reid’s shirt and was pulling him back as Foster cleared. The Forest fans were furious but the referee and linesman said play on.
Dean Ashton had the ball in the net but for the goal to be disallowed. A superb ball from Brammer sent Ashton in on goal from the left. Deano slotted it into the bottom left but the linesman had the flag up as some fans celebrated.
The best chance of the match was from a corner and a scramble in the box. A Ashton header was saved while Jones’ rebound was also blocked and Foster’s 2nd rebound was finally gathered by the keeper.
Crewe went in the better side at half time but Forest were always threatening when they got the ball, especially Reid on the right side.
In the second half it was obvious goals were going to come. Both teams had chances in the first half and there should have already been a goal. However 5 minutes after Ashton skied the ball over the bar Forest took the lead through poor defending. Andy Reid’s through ball caught all the defenders off guard and Marlon Harewood ran onto it and lobbed low over Ince and the ball trickled past the right post into the net.
As Forest belted out their rendition of ‘Lost that loving feeling’ Crewe battled on and finally got a deserved equaliser. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Kenny Lunt stepped up for a free kick, which Rix won through fooling Williams into a needless tackle with excellent foot work. LuntSmashed a curling shot round the four man wall into the centre of the net. Ward in the Forest goal had expected a cross into the box so was stunned to see it fly past him.
The Forest goal was probably what we needed. It waked us up a bit more and got us going. We started cutting through the Forest defence like it wasn’t there. Skill, movement and passing was all excellent. One man stood out above the rest though with David Vaughan. Nothing got past him at left back and is foot work was amazing stuff. When Vaughan move’s onto the wing we’ll be scary stuff.
After 73 minutes we were looking the better team and certainly deserved the 2nd goal. A David Wright cross found a unmarked Ashton in the middle of the 8 yard box to smash a brilliant header pass the helpless Ward.
You would have thought this would have urged Forest to get an equaliser but Crewe dominated play as we looked for a third. 77th minute and Jones hit a curling shot from the left wide. Five minutes after that and excellent build up play saw a host of chances with Rix squaring it to Lunt in the area who dummied two players before trying to curl a shot into the top left but it smacked off Wes Morgan’s face and then Jones, from 20 yards, flashed the ball wide.
You felt it wasn’t Jones’ day (or season) a couple of minutes later when he broke free of the defence before sticking it past the keeper – nice finish only to find he had been penalised for handball. The last five minutes you felt were going to be nervy. Forest started to really go for it and won a host of corners, but nothing threatened Ince much.
It was a much nicer game after our third and Jones’ first. A poor clearance from Wes Morgan was intercepted by a Lunt sliding tackle. Brammer took it forward to Jones who laid it off to Ashton 30 yards out. Ashton’s 30 yard curling shot bounce off the crossbar and bounced out to Jones who, with a diving header sent the ball into the back of the net. Jonah, being so happy, did a little forward roll. Nice.
So it ended 3-1 to Crewe. A score line I certainly wasn’t expecting. A draw would have done me and would have been a good come back from the West Ham game. For large parts of the game we looked a class outfit – so good we looked one of the top 6 teams in the division.
Man of the man HAD to be David Vaughan. Class defending and class movement. His foot work, as I said earlier, was brilliant. Kenny Lunt was also brilliant in midfield, can’t be a better play maker in the division. Wright was again awesome – the unsung hero. Only worry is, is Walker’s clearence’s. Every time he clears the ball doesn’t seem to stay in the ground.
Thing’s are certainly looking bright. We aren’t heading for a relegation scrap. Lets go to Leicester for a confidence boosting performance. Win or lose make a good game, also give Hignett a good reception. Then on Saturday, vs Cardiff, 3 points would be excellent. These are the weeks where the table starts to even it’s self out. We have a game in hand over most teams immediately below and beating Cardiff would take us to 8th with a couple of easier games, in Coventry and Watford, after that.
We’re underrated in this division. Lets hit the ‘big boys’ where it hurts!
♫♪♫♪