Dario Gradi has asked the players “are you going up or are you going down?” after a season that’s not seen us win back to back league games until tonight. The players are trying to answer that question quickly and two wins in two isn’t bad going. Derby simply rolled over as three teenagers in Barrowman, Ashton and Rix put 3 past them. Tonight the players followed that up with a fairly comfortable 2-1 win over Preston North End. Preston came to Gresty Road being the form team of Division One whilst we were still unsure what we were going to do this season. The team lined up as expected, Neil Sorvel in for the injured Dave Brammer.
INCE
VAUGHAN FOSTER WALKER WRIGHT
JONES SORVEL COCHRANE LUNT
ASHTON BARROWMAN
Also in the 16 saw sixteen year old Billy Jones on the bench for the second game running. Along with a return of Anthony Tonkin from the flu.
The game started with both teams looking lively. Preston’s Eddie Lewis and Ricardo Fuller were both causing Wright and Walker a bit of grief in the opening minutes. Fuller’s good footwork gave Walker some thinking to do. Dean Ashton, Andrew Barrowman and Steve Jones were just as tricky for Preston to deal with though. The first shot of the game was 5 minutes in when Brian O’Neil hit a weak long range shot straight at Ince.
The first goal came 10 minutes into the match in somewhat of a quiet spell, but the build up play before the game was excellent. Walker passed it out of defence, Cochrane, in midfield, got out of a muddle by giving it to Neil Sorvel just inside our own half, Sorvs shook off his marker with a little turn on the ball before giving it to David Vaughan down the left. Vaughany then set off down the left before cross into the box for Lunt to run onto and smash home with his first touch. The goal got the crowd lifted and the players were spurred on.
The players in red were closing down every ball and made it extremely hard for Preston to pass their way to goal. That’s not to say Preston didn’t have chances as they gave the defence a couple of scare’s. A couple of minutes after the goal Chris Lucketti smashed a rebound from a corner into the Gresty Road End. Whilst Graham Alexander hit a half smash and hope and a chip which cannoned off the cross bar, even though Ince looked to have it covered.
Kenny Lunt tried a couple of cheeky free kicks as he tried to chip the keeper. On the 27th minute Foster extended the lead to 2-0 with a top header from a corner. David Vaughan’s corner was floated into the middle of the penalty area which Foster ran onto unmarked and sent an unstoppable header into the back of the net.
It was nothing more than we deserved with PNE not looking up for it and our players really working tirelessly to close Preston down. The closing down play really did deny Preston of any comfortable possession during the game and one player who was more noticeable than the rest was Justin Cochrane. The Hackney born midfielder really showed class and covered every blade of grass. For £75k, or whatever we paid, then he has to be the bargain buy of the Nationwide year.
On the half hour mark was probably the scariest moment of the match. A massive mix up in defence allowed Preston to cause havoc on a couple of cross’ and Foster and Walker refusing to clear first time. It took a solid Clayton Ince dive and catch to save Graham Alexander pulling a goal back with a 20 yard low curling shot.
The ‘hullabaloo’ was just around the corner. Dean Ashton fouled the Preston keeper Jonathan Gould after they both went up for a David Wright cross. As the referee calmed Ashton down and the keeper lined up the free kick just inside the Preston penalty box the linesman down the side of the away fans started flagging, With Foster, Walker, Cresswell and Fuller all grouped together noone was quite sure what happened as the referee spent a good minute or two talking to the linesman. The linesman called Fuller over, talked to him and then showed him red. Fuller, though, refused to accept it and refused to leave the pitch. It took two Preston players to convince Fuller to leave the pitch and play didn’t continue for atleast 3 or 4 minutes.
Preston started to lose their temper and it showed just before half time when Cresswell shoved Walker the linesman flagged and the referee called him over but Cresswell just picked the ball up and stormed over angrily to the linesman, it earned him a yellow card and the free kick moved forward 10 yards.
During the first half there were a few classy moments from Crewe players. One where Dean Ashton got in a muddle but managed to run rings round 3 Preston players, there was also a change in free kicks, with a free kick 30 yards out a 3 man Preston wall was confused as Lunt ran straight past the ball and pass the wall as Ashton put him through. Lunt tried to square the ball across goal but to no avail.
At half time things were pretty comfortable and you couldn’t have been blamed for thinking the 3 points were sealed. Highlights of the first half were Justin Cochrane covering every inch of the pitch and just the general solidarity of the team.
Within 2 minutes of the restart Steve Jones could have made it 3-0. A skilful run down the left allowed him to cut inside on the edge of the area where he managed to curl a shot at goal but the ‘keeper managed to parry out of harms way.
Two minutes later and Preston midfielder Michael Keane went close with a 35 yard curling shot which had to be tipped round the left post by Trinidadian Clayton Ince. On the 55th minute Barrowman had a glorious opportunity to score his 2nd of the season. A nice turn on the ball saw him get away from his marker and free on goal. The young Scot had more space than he thought and one on one with the keeper he rushed his shot which was low at the bottom right corner, which the keeper had well covered.
We were well on top and Gresty Road celebrated what it thought was the third goal but the ball had only hit the side netting after a Lunt corner to the far post was met by Dean Ashton on the hour mark. After that it chances started to dry up as the Alex players were starting to settle for the 2-0 advantage. The only chances to note were when Dean Ashton terrorised the Preston defence but on a couple of occasions his shots were over or just blocked.
With Crewe closing down so quickly it was left to Preston to have to resort to long shots. Both Marlon Broomes and Graham Alexander hit 30 yard shots, but Broomes failed to trouble Ince and Alexander smashed wide. Infact Preston were just pushed back again and again and with them playing a 4-4-1 formation then it was ultimately impossible for them to get it into the box.
Crewe though were still looking for a 3rd on counter attacks and Ben Rix went close with 10 minutes left. After a Wright cross Rix got the better of his marker but his header flashed over the bar. The game was fizzling out into nothing and both teams just playing the game out, Crewe more so than Preston. Unfortunately Preston grabbed a goal with seconds to go. Michael Keane sent Dickson Etuhu down the left Etuhu sent a hard cross along the ground with Foster and Cresswell both running down the middle into the box but the ball got the better of Foster and Cresswell, Ince stood flat footed as the ball rolled into the bottom right corner.
It was a sloppy goal to give away and the 2-1 score line is flattering towards Preston. Although we never dominated for long periods we made the possession count and should have had another couple of goals with the chances.
Richard Walker had his best game in a while at the back with Foster. Nothing got past the 22 year old but it was hard to judge with just one striker to deal with. In midfield Justin Cochrane was immense with his non-stop running, tackling and passing - he was CreweAlex.com‘s man of the match. Neil Sorvel answered his critics with a fine display and array of tackling and passing with some neat skill that started the moment for the 1st goal. Steve Jones also had his best game in a while and caused havoc as he ran rings round the Preston defence, deserved a goal. Andrew Barrowman was nothing spectacular but was still working tirelessly and giving everything with a decent display. Ashton worked his socks off for 90 minutes, but still can’t shake off his critics…… unfortunately.
Up to 11th in the table and having played the same amount of games as most teams things are looking brilliant at the moment. On Saturday we face Stoke, anything can happen on derby days but I see no reason why we can’t give Stoke a good going over and with hopefully 3,000 Alex fans urging the players on, who knows.