Well, the team sort of answered it positively against Sunderland. Shame the defence still couldn't defend. Call me picky but other teams are usually better when they have a defence that does it's job.
The game started after a one minute silence for footballing legend Brian Clough, who passed away on Monday. In the team were Cochrane and Roberts, in for Varney and Tonkin respectively, whilst Paul Bignot, brother of Marcus and all that, was on the bench. Sunderland made 10 changes, and you could tell.
Thirty five minutes gone we should have been three, maybe four, nil to the good. Ashton and Jones were having joy with Sunderland's defence whilst Kenny Lunt sprayed balls left, right and centre. It was soon apparent that balls up and over the defence gave Sunderland problems.
Mark Roberts couldn't follow up Foster's glancing header from a corner, knowing he was inches away from a debut goal. Steve Jones though got the first real shot on target, and in the back of the net. Long over the top ball from Lunt allowed Jones to run onto it, clear on goal he just lobbed it over Myhre and we were in front.
Similar chances came; Ashton had a carven copy chance which he hit straight at the keeper and Jones nearly ran free after a mistake from the Sunderland defence. A unfortunate, fluke, deflection got Sunderland out of trouble.
Sunderland equalised a few minutes from half time, Foster and Vaughan made a cock up of a ball, Jon Oster took the free ball down the wing, cross it and the /not very\ alert Alex defence did nothing to stop Brown heading into the top right corner.
Ashton should have soon put us back in front when he found space on the left of the Sunderland penalty area. His shot though, with a clear sight of goal, was just wide of the far post. Half time.
The second half started dull and never really picked up. David Vaughan missed a wonderful volley from the edge of the area, his ferocious shot dipped on to the crossbar. The half never really picked up till Dean Ashton put the Alex back in front. Deeeeannnooo latched onto one hell of a Kenny Lunt pass to run clear on goal - you get the picture, Sunderland's defence was awful - he took the slightest of touches to knock it past the keeper before rolling into an open net.
Of course, being Crewe, we kept this lead. We looked comfortable, even as young Paul Bignot made his debut. He came on the Moses, who tallies our injury list to four defenders. We even looked like scoring, best of all the free kick from Kenny Lunt.
Ok, I didn't really want to tell you about the free kick its self but the way we got it. Lovely foot work from Deano. Think Ronaldinho, Henry and Christiano Ronaldo combined - now think of someone trying to copy them. It was like that, he bamboozled three Sunderland defenders so out of bitterness they took his legs off him. The free-kick was actually rather lame.
Last 10 minutes and you knew what exactly would happen. Sunderland would score and so they did. Brown again, this time a rather poor cross was rolled in by Liam Lawrence (£175k - havin' a laugh? Thank god he joined them) and everyone seemed to stand still. The ball, apparently, was turned in by Brown who stood goal hanging on the line.
Still, why was he in front of Foster? Basics, Foz, basics!
So selfish of Sunderland. The second half was rather drab, mainly because a lot of it was Sunderland, so why put us through 30 minutes more torture?
Anyway, extra time was a similar story. Stephen Elliott scored, because Walker can't defend. Brown turned Walker, who is still trying to turn now, and found Elliott in space on the left of the area. His shot rifled past Williams and you hated the whole Crewe team for mucking things up. Again.
It was a depressing 17 minutes as Crewe defended the 2-3 score than they did the 2-1. Ofcourse I had faith in the team to correct things! Even on the 130th minute! Ok, I didn't but when was the last time we scored from a corner?
Ashton flicked on Lunt's corner and in slow motion Foster got down low and smashed a header past the keeper and sent all 3,200 Alex fans mad. Not really.
It was one of the last headers of the game and we had a penalty shoot out to contend with, but we were fine. Ashton confidently tucked his away, Lunt managed to get the ball off the ground, Foster smashed his home and Rivo won the tie. In between; Caldwell was cocky and aimed high... it hit the crossbar, whilst Collins was victim to a Ben Williams save.
So a round up; Ashton and Jones were awesome, Lunt was very good, Vaughan wasn't, Richard Walker should quit whilst he's ahead, Mark Roberts is extremely impressive, Bignot caught out with the pace of the game but nonetheless very good & we need more goals from Foz!
Bring on, erm, Preston!
Player Ratings;
Ben Williams - 6 - Penalty save. Good kicking. Nice hair?
Adie Moses - 7 - Excellent down the right. Looked comfortable and kept Jon Oster out of the game.
Steve Foster - 7 - Easy enough task for him. One or two mis placed passes but I can forgive and forget.
Richard Walker - 4 - Just not a Championship player.
Mark Roberts - 7 - Very good debut. The way he's built and his heading - lets see him at centre back!
Kenny Lunt - 7 - Good game from Kenny. Some very good passing.
Neil Sorvel - 6 - Average.
Justin Cochrane - 7 - Grass well covered. Good comeback.
David Vaughan - 6 - Passes misplaced, nudged off the ball. Not his best.
Steve Jones - 8 - Brilliant. Took their defence to the cleaners, and back again.
Dean Ashton - 8 - Controlled it up front. Just needs to shoot from the corner flag and he should have shot from every area on the pitch!
Match report written in 29 minutes. Record time. Bet you can tell as well.