After the disappointment of the defeat at Selhurst Park on Saturday, Dario Gradi and Crewe will be looking to get 3 points on the board when Ipswich Town come to Fortress Gresty on Saturday. On the opening day, Ipswich got a good point against fancied Reading with a last-minute penalty slotted away by one-time Alex target Tommy Miller.
Can Crewe make it two consecutive wins after the slow start to the season? The clean sheet and the goals for the strikers from the win against Wrexham should give the team confidence, and Kenny Lunt was starting to knock the ball around in the second half.
Ipswich will be an entirely different proposition, and should be good enough to be in the top 6 at least come May. It could be to our advantage to be playing the Tractor Boys early on in the season, but for one, I am just happy the footy season is back. Roll on 3.00 on Saturday.
Ipswich have been on a downward spiral before going back up it again since we last played them. Once down from the premiership they found themselves in an awful financial situation and George Burley making a mess of their return to division one.
Last season Ipswich found themselves in the bottom bottom half with just 3 wins in their first ten games. as a result George Burley was sacked and Joe Royle was drafted it. Royle had a hard start to his Ipswich career with Ipswich entering administration it forced them to sell some of their best players. Matt Holland left for Charlton, Ambrose went to Newcastle, Gaardose to West Brom and Herman Heidarsson joined Holland at Charlton. Serini off to Lazio and Clapham joined Birmingham. So it was obviously a hard time for Royle but he turned Ipswich around and they climbed the table.
By the end of the season Ipswich were unlucky to miss out on the play-offs finishing 7th and 4 points off the play-offs. Over the summer they've strengthened their signed with the signings of Kelvin Davis from Wimbledon, Drissa Diallo from Burnley, Makin from Sunderland & Georges Santos from Grimsby.
Their team could also seem former Alex midfielder Jermaine Wright and Tommy Miller, who turned the Alex down to join Ipswich despite Crewe willing to break a club record fee to buy him from Hartlepool.
Ipswich will be missing striker Marcus Bent and Jim Magilton. So...
Expect Joe Royle's side to line up something like this: Kelvin Davis, Fabian Wilnis, Drissa Diallo, Chris Makin, Antonio Murray, Georges Santos, Tommy Miller, Darren Bent, Pablo Counago, Dean Bowdwitch, Richard Naylor
For the Alex, following the good 2-0 confidence booster against Wrexham the alex will be hoping to get the first points of the season. the team will include Jonathan Walters, but only on the bench to start with. We're also yet to see if reports that the Alex have signed an experienced striker are true. No fresh injury worries and the same team that started on Tuesday will probably start.
Ince; Wright, Foster, Moses, Vaughan; Lunt, Brammer, Cochrane, Rix; Jones, Ashton.
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Darren Bent
D.o.B - 06/02/1984
An interesting battle will be the one between Marcus Bent and Steve Foster, and we will have to keep an eye out for Pablo Counago and Tommy Miller, who scored for Town against Reading on Saturday with a last minute penalty, but the man to watch is Darren Bent.
Although this Tooting born youngster has only played around 20 games for Ipswich, many of those as a sub, he has scored a handful of goals and is already highly rated. The 20 year old has been on the books at Ipswich since he was 14, and he was a member of their U-17 side that won the Academy league and reached the FA Youth Cup semi-finals. He has represented England at U-15, U-16, U-17, and U-19. Making his debut in Nov 2001 v. Helsingborg in the UEFA Cup, he scored his first goal against Middlesbrough in April 2002. He has been tipped to follow Kieron Dyer, Titus Bramble and Darren Ambrose to St. James Park and the Alex defence will have their work cut out to keep him quiet if we are to send the Tractor Boys home pointless.
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League Cup 3rd Round Tuesday 9 October 2001
Crewe 2 Ipswich 3 In a season with a few memorable matches, this one was a classic at Gresty Rd. Both teams played good football, with the Tractor Boys eventually running out 3-2 winners. Although the Alex were never in charge, they made an Ipswich team fight all the way to the final whistle to secure their place in the next round. Efe Sodje had a great game at centre back and 17 year old Dean Ashton raised the tempo with his cameo second half performance.
This was the match that ended Matt Holland's run of 237 consecutive games for Town, as he was rested after playing for Eire the weekend before. It was still a strong side that George Burley put out, however, featuring players such as Sereni, Bramble, Peralta and Reuser. Town also featured former Alex player Jermaine Wright and recent transfer target Tommy Miller, who had chosen the Tractor Boys when moving from Hartlepool.
Only four minutes into the first half, ex-Ajax winger Reuser put the Premiership side 1-0 up with a sweet strike that left George standing. The Alex then had chances to draw level with Hulse and Charnock going close. An unmarked Rob Hulse headed home from a corner in the eighth minute to make it 1-1 and shake the men from the division above.
10 minutes before half time a game now dominated by Dario's young team then swung once more in Town's direction when Makin's long ball caught Walton the wrong side of Stewart who headed across goal to allow Alun Armstrong to half-volley home. The ex-Stockport man would have been surprised to see his shot squirm past George.
The second half was mainly controlled by Ipswich, but it was the final 20 minutes that provided the most excitement. Dario brought on Deano to put some life back into the game, which lifted the crowd. However, it was Ipswich, spurred on by the impressive Peralta who scored again. Marcus Stewart found Reuser with a lovely touch and the Dutchman knocked it past Bamkole for his second. This seemed to spur the Reds onto greater efforts.
Dave Brammer walked onto a fine Dean Ashton through ball before coolly beating Sereni for his first Alex goal, and Deano had a couple of late efforts thwarted by Matteo Sereni in the Ipswich goal. The Ipswich fans we spoke to after the game were full of praise for the Red men, with Hulse, Ashton and Jack getting warm words. A great evening of football on the night that Liverpool also lost 2-1 at home to Grimsby. Crewe Alex; Bankole, Foster, Smith, Walton, Sodje, Sorvel, Lunt, Charnock, Brammer, Hulse, Jack. Subs; Ince, Thomas, Collins, Barrett, Ashton Ipswich; Sereni, Makin, Clapham, McGreal, Venus, Reuser, Miller, Wright, Peralta, Stewart, Armstrong. Subs; Branagan, Counago, Naylor, Wilnis, Gaardsoe
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