Defensive Errors Cost Alex Badly

CreweAlex.com Man Of The Match. The battler. JUSTIN COOOOOCCCCHRANNNE!

Crewe

The game started with Cardiff immediately attacking and Earnshaw volleying wide and over within the first minute, after breaking the offside traps. Graham Kavanagh was getting forward a lot and had a shot blocked 3 minutes in. On the 5^th minute, after surviving a massive wave of attacks from Cardiff, Ashton had the first shot on target after cutting in down the left of the box but keeper Neil Alexander turned it out for a corner. The corner, like every other corner this season, came to nothing.

The first 15 minutes were all Cardiff’s and already you could see where the game was going. The defence looked good, but venerable, at times Brammer, Vaughan and Lunt gave their midfield too much times but young Cochrane was excellent as he hustled, tackled and fought with every last effort for every ball.

On 17 minutes Cardiff nearly took the lead through defensive mistakes. Kavanagh looked to hit a 20 yard shot straight into the hands of the, usually, reliable Ince but it bounced back off Inces chest to Thorne but luckily enough Ince dived down low to fist it out.

Mark Bonner tried to cross it back into the box but Brammer hit it out for a corner. Ince redeemed himself with the resulting corner. Tony Vidmar sent a looping header over Ince but as it dipped Incey just managed to top it onto the roof of the net.  

On the 21^st minute Ashton headed over from 6 yards but the best chance of the half came for Cardiff when a ball slipped in between Wright and Foster, on the 26^th minute, found Langley free on goal but he smashed his shot inches wide when he just had to hit the target. Credit to Wright and Foz for putting him off, Wright however came out of it badly with what looked like a dislocated shoulder, or something bad to do with the shoulder. Wright played on for the rest of the half but was replaced by McCready at half time.

That chance spurred us on a little more knowing we were so close to going behind. Ashton could have done better when he hit a free header straight into the keepers hands on the half hour mark. Crosses were going in from left right and centre but we just weren’t getting anywhere. We didn’t look like scoring if we carried on for the next week,

5 minutes from time Ince spilt another shot, this one from Rhys Weston, but luckily he recovered to gather the ball. Disaster struck 40 seconds from half time. Just as we started finding out feet, Graham Kavanagh flashed a low curling cross across the face of the goal. Walker should have volleyed it clear but totally missed it, it left Foster being shocked at Walker messing up so he didn’t have time to recover the ball and before Ince could do anything former Stoke forward Peter Thorne nipped in at the back post to knock the ball in.

Gutting to go 1 down just as we were starting to look up for it and even worse was it was seconds before half time. During the first half the Cardiff fans had been in full voice. Giving Ince a lot of stick, but Ince played to the crowd with a dance and a wave to the Cardiff fans behind the goal. Cardiff fans didn’t seem as hostile as the press and other make out but maybe they should drop the massive anti-English following. There wasn’t a hint of violence within the ground or outside the ground, before and after the game.

Back to the game. We started the brighter and so nearly took the lead 4 minutes into the second half. A Vaughan cross found Edwards who forced Neil Alexander to parry out only to Ashton who’s point blank shot was both offside and tipped wide.

Again, just as we found our feet we conceded a soft goal. Earnshaw was fed the ball into the right of the area. Earnshaw got the better of Foster before smashing his shot past Ince. Just after that it could have been 3-0. Richard Langley flashed a shot from 25 yards towards the far bottom corner but Ince full stretched parried it out to save us from an embarrassment.

The final 30 minutes were up and down the pitch but Cardiff always having the better of possession. Cochrane, my man of the match, battled hard but nothing was going right. We seemed to go out onto that pitch with less belief than we had at the end of the game. I don’t believe the players thought we’d get near Cardiff. The flair, passing and movement just wasn’t there.

We had our chances with Foster and Ashton both missing point blank headers and with Cardiff strikers, Thorne and Earnshaw, not actually threatening other than when they scored it just drains the confidence out of you.  It got more depressing when Thorne knocked in a third. A lofted ball into the box saw Thorne bring it down but awful marking from Walker allowed Thorne to slip free and hit a deflected shot off Ince into the goal.

For one I don’t think Walker is quite good enough for the job. Top person and loves the club. Gives 100% but his clearing is appalling. His tackling, great, his heading, excellent, but clearing? Very suspect. The 1^st and 3^rd goal came because he failed to clear – both awkward balls but a little toe poke would have stopped the goals. I want to see Moses back in when fit.

It brings me onto the team selection. The forced changes have unsettled the side more than anything. I didn’t realise how much we value Rix and Jones, they both have a creative spark in them. Tonks isn’t quite ready to play 30 odd Division One games. His marking is very naïve and he allows defenders to get in behind him. Paul Edwards up front is going to be a star. He’s not a Peter Smith who’ll play a few games before ending up in the Unibond. He’s a quality player but struggling in the deep end. This season is a learning curve – next season I think he’ll be a star. He’s the new Hulse, in more ways than one. Playing for the club and a the same times runs his socks off for 90 minutes no matter what the score is.

Onto Dario missing. It’s going to affect us more than we realise. Ince was stupid to play up to the crowd, he needs to block that out. He lost his concentration and ended up dropping balls. Dario would have given him a right telling off but he wasn’t there and Baker didn’t do much. All credit to Brammer for telling Ince to cut it out. A true captain!

Cochrane (Hasn’t he got a nickname yet?) I thought was brilliant. My Man of the Match because he covered every blade. The boy is a bargain. He was going in hard in the middle of the field and when Vaughan or Lunt drifted away from the wings he did a brilliant job covering for them. Giving 100% every game and fast becoming the new official fans favourite(Since Hulse).

I don’t think we’re in any mess… we’re still 12^th. I think the whole team just needs to up the quality. It’s going to be tough without DG but, in my view, we’ve got the easiest patch of games we’ll have this season. Sheff Utd will be called off due to international call ups, that leaves us playing Coventry, Bradford, Derby, Preston and Stoke…. if we don’t get 10 points at least from that then I’ll moan. On our day we could take all 5 to the cleaners, Stoke twice over.