Ok, Lets not get on Deano's shoulders again. He's
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Dario made one shock change, Dave Brammer was dropped all together to ge over a knock from the weekend game and was replaced by youngster Lee Bell to get his first start at Gresty Road. Steve Jones replaced Ben Rix down the left, Walker replaced Stitch, Walton, in the heart of the defence while Big George got his second outing in place of Clayton Ince. It was obviously going to be a great match with two teams who can play excellent football but we just didn't show it on the night. We were on the back foot from the word go despite getting an early corner. With no Brammer there there was no-one really holding the midfield together and commanding it with takles plus his ability to find space from nowhere was missed. Walton though was not. Walker kept us in the game and his excellent defending will have caught the eye of the scouts at the game, the Doorman kept the ball out of the area and won every header and commanded that defence - you could tell with the atmosphere like a friendly.
The first proper good chance was wasted one, when Jack spreaded the balldown field to Ashton he was onside with noone to beat but just as he got to the outside of the area the ball got trapped under his feet and a Blackpool player cleared while injuring himself in the meantime. You just felt that nothing was ever going to go right for Dean this season especially after he scuffed a clear cut chance from a few yards out after a Lunt corner. Overall though we were struggling to gain any possesion with Blackpool just passing it around as they built up confidence. Their main threat was from crosses and Foster and Walker had to work overtime to get the balls clear. If Walker was not on the pitch we would have struggled as he urged the defence on. It was the youngest players on the pitch who impressed though, Lee Bell worked tirelessly in the heart of the midfield to win possesion and move the Alex forward while Ashton tried his best to latch onto balls all through the game, he also made some wonderful touches and showed great vision at times.
While Blackpool dominated the possesion they didn't show eagerness to get the lead and failed to split the Alex defence during the first half. They were forced to just long shots which Bankole delt with easily. The main threat was coming from on-loan midfielder, Sean Thornton, who was not scared to run at the Alex defence at all. The Alex in the mean time were just too predictable too many balls were trying to set Ashton free on goal but many were over hit and he would have to be Dwain Chambers to even get near them, much possesion lost because of it aswell.
But at half time it was the Blackpool fans feeling the happier after the tangerines(or whites in this case) dominated and pushed at the Alex for the first half - the 2,500 Crewe fans were just hoping for a slight improvement going forward.
Half Time :- Alex 0-0 Blackpool
So second half and Blackpool were out first, followed shortly by the Alex. No changes by either manager but again Blackpool took control of possesion but no reaction from Dario as he remained off the touchline for the first 50 minutes. Sean Thorton again being the man to trouble Crewe as a hard shot smashed goalwards was easily caught from Nigerian star Bankole. From the resulting goal kick Bankole smashed it up to Ashton who brought it down and on the edge of the D he swerved right to go past two men and from a tight angle smashed it goal bound and even though Barnes got a hand to it it idn't stop the ball smashing into the bottom right corner. Ashton had scored THAT goal everyone talked about. You could see a massive weight being lifted off his shoulders as he ran to the Gresty Road End to celebrate as the whole team gathered round to congratulate the 18 year old.
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So as the Alex fans celebrated a shock lead Blackpool made the same move as Brentford did at the weekend and on came 3 substitutes, a risk from Steve McMahon as there could have been a possibility of extra time and penaltys and should a player have got injured they could not have replaced him. Then it should have been 3-0 should Jones not have been so hasty to get a goal, when he picked it up on the half way line him and Jack were on a 2 on 1 sitiuation but instead of setting Jack free he went alone getting past one defender, but others had pulled back quickly, and after a brilliant run three defenders ganged up on the Northern Irish forward to clear.
The ginger nut went on a few other mazing runs and just simply struck fear into the tangerines in what i would called his best 20 minutes at the club so far. First one was cutting in from the left but his hard shot was broken down, the other whenhe went racing down the right but when trying to cut inside to the area his touch let him down.
Full time and Crewe had pulled off a spirited win with a few positives from the game. We have shown that our fringe players are obviously good enough against teams like Blackpool and with Tranmere and Port Vale being the only Division Two teams left in the Northern Section we have a good chance of getting to Cardiffs millenium stadium to win our first domestic cup EVER!
One negative we have shown some of the fans are a bunch of part timers. No excuses, even though our gate was the biggest in the Northern Section its still a pathetic turn out when you would jump at the chance to go to the final. Get off your arse and support the Alex at the Alex not on your sofa while cheering for Liverpool!