 | Breath taking saves and dominate in his box. CREWEALEX.COM MAN OF THE MATCH |
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It was a harsh way to go out of the cup. A match we really didn’t deserve to lose within the 90 minutes. It being the first match without Dario in over 1000 games Neil Baker and Steve Holland stressed that Dario Gradi wasn’t in charge for the time being and everything was down to them. Baker and Holland had their first decision to be made as Steve Jones dropped out of the squad hours before the game. Jonah had a tight hamstring on Tuesday and so in his place was Paul Edwards. The youngster had his first start for Crewe.
What a stage for your full debut, 27,000 fans in a brand new impressive Walkers Stadium. ‘Eddie’ started up front with Dean Ashton. Lunt, Brammer, Cochrane and Rix in midfield with Wright, Foster, Walker and Vaughan standing in front of Clayton Ince, who was playing his 70th Alex game.
The game started with huge pressure from Leicester. Impey had a cross plucked out of the air by Ince before two Nalis’ shots went over and wide in the first 7 minutes. After 8 minutes Foster headed out for a corner from which Brian Deane headed well over from the centre of the penalty area.
The best chance of the game came 13 minutes in. A Nalis cross found Brian Deane on the near post, Deane had got the better of Walker and got in front of him but from 8 yards out, needing to just tap it in, Deane smashed it a good 5 yards over the bar.
After 15 minutes we started to come into the game abit more. Cochrane sent a looping header to the top right corner from Lunts cross on the 19th minute but Walker just managed to scramble across to catch the ball. A minute later Leicester were on the attack and from a corner Paul Brooker hit the ball over into the 600 or so Crewe fans.
Ashton pulled back into midfield as Crewe attacked on the 27th minute. Deano knew was he was waiting for and when the ball came flying clear he tried a first time volley from 40 yards but failed to connect to the ball properly and the ball was too weak to trouble Ian Walker.
Six minutes later and Ince was the only player to stop Leicester going in front. After half an hour of “SHOOOOOOOOOOT” from Leicester fans whenever, and wherever, Nalis got the ball he finally had a shot. A cleared cross was volleyed by Nalis and it fiercely went dipping into the bottom right corner but Ince, the best keeper in the 1st division by a country mile, went full stretch from one end of the goal to the other to parry it clear to Vaughan. Brilliant save that got a standing ovation from travelling Crewe fans.
The “SHOOOOOT” urges were getting tiresome whenever Nilas got the ball and in the end it was Crewe fans shouting it as a piss take.
Crewe’s best chance of the half, or maybe game, came a few moments laters. Crewe broke from and Ashton went up to challenge Ian Walker for the ball. Deano headed clear of Walker but with his back to goal and no time to bring the high ball down Dean did a little over head kick across the face of goal to Paul Edwards who volleyed it at an open net but Steve Howey dived in and got his face(!) to the ball.
Brian Deane was taken off that moment by Micky Adams and Im not surprised, what a dreadful performance. James Scowcroft replaced him.
Before half time the only decent chance came when Ashton ran the Leicester defence ragged before hitting a shot from 20 yards. The shot though was perfect height for Ian Walker. Before half time Scowcroft should have scored when a John Curtis cross found him at the far post he headed straight into the hands of Ince.
Despite the chances Leicester had we were certainly not being outplayed. We gave as good as we got as far as possession went but maybe hesitation was down to lack of chances. You always felt we were on the edge of upping the tempo but it just never happened in the first half.
Half time was one of the weirdest half times you could witness. A awful PA guide making many bad jokes was on the verge of crying while reading a letter from some former player, I never caught the name. After that he welcomed former Alex greats, and Leicester players, Robbie Savage & Neil Lennon onto the pitch. Neil Lennon got a brilliant reception from the Alex fans whilst the PA guy made Alan Partridge type jokes. After all that he made a couple of patronising comments towards the idea of Crewe being little and sh*t. A-ha.
Also at half time Scowcroft was replaced for Leicester, after coming on only 10 minutes before the break. Strange.
Second half was a little less action packed than the first. Within the first five minutes Brammer curled over from a corner as did Paul Brooker for Leicester. Just before the hour mark Neil Baker made a change to the team. A knackered Ben Rix was replaced by Anthony Tonkin. Tonkin went in at left back and the excellent Vaughan was allowed to roam onto the left wing.
Leicester were the better attacking team without looking like scoring. Ince was again magnificent at claiming the crosses and was even magnificent when he came to the breath taking saves. Although Dickov was off-side neither Dickov or Ince knew and Dickov broke clear and fired a shot low at the bottom left corner but at the speed of light Ince got down to his left out stretched and clawed the ball away. It’s as good of a save as you’ll see in any league anywhere this season.
A mix up only stopped Lunt or Edwards taking the lead on the hour mark. A lovely floated ball to the far post found Edwards until Lunt went diving in to head wide of a half empty net.
15 minutes later and a Crewe break caught Ian Walker off guard. After Edwards was caught offside about 30 yards out Walker took the free kick only for Vaughan to win the ball. Vaughany ran down the wing and as Walker scrambled back to his goal Vaughan missed the chance to shoot from 40-50 yards into an open net when he gave it to Brammer. The move continued back to Vaughan who went into the left edge of the box to lay it off to Tonkin who then immediately back heeled it back to Vaughan – after Tonkin shook off Vaughan’s markers. It was true Brazil style foot ball.
Minutes later and Ince was back in the thick of it. Dickov smashed a ball goalwards from 20 yards. As it flew towards the top right corner Ince at full stretch managed to tip it over the over with one hand.
There was nothing Ince could do for the penalty. The penalty came about 2 minutes later. Walker tried to shield the ball out of play but Junior Lewis must have bounced off Walker when trying to knock him off his feet as the ref gave a penalty. Paul Dickov struck it perfectly into the side netting.
The goal came and the match went. Nothing much happened after the goal and Leicester fans streamed out.
The score line it’s left was probably about right but the penalty was harsh and Leicester never looked any better than Forest did. We missed Jones up front a lot. Edwards played a superb game and has done his chances no harm but inexperienced to say the least. A few more games of coming on for the last 15 minutes would do him a lot of good. He made some decent runs but didn’t create as much as Jones.
It was a good performance and a lot of plus points came out of the game. We can go to Cardiff with belief we have what it takes to win with ‘ease’ if we played to our best. It was a cup game, no-one ever shows them true selves in them.
On Saturday, against Cardiff, it’s the first, of many, league games without Dario on the touchline. Lets hope the players respond and respond in a good way. Lets do Dario proud whilst he's away!