Crewe Alex v Notts County

[JJ1532]

Urgh, shoot me now. We always struggle against Notts County, always. Haven't won in our last 12 against them. And now we face a top of the league County side who are rolling at the moment, plus we're in shit form and are struggling like hell to score.

Yeah, chalk this one up as a loss. Next.

 

[TimeyWimey]

I see us just rolling over and having our bellies tickled for this one. This lot have the typical Crewe mentality of accepting defeat before kick off for games like this. 2-0 Notts, goal either side of half time, we’ll huff and puff, media will tell us there were “positive signs”, Dave will be honest with a funny quote thrown in but with no real action ahead of Accy etc etc.

Fail to win one of the next three and realistically it has to be bye bye Dave. Obvs it won’t be, would make far too much sense for Crewe, but things are bad enough now.

 

[jacobncfc]

It's a sign of where we are that i'd be disappointed with just a point from this.

We usually win at Gresty Road even when we've got a bad team, so hopefully we should be able to now that we've actually got a good one. Nolan will probably do his usual midweek thing of making five or six changes. Would expect maybe Milsom, Grant, Tootle, Ameobi and Dickinson to get a rest (the latter if Dan Jones is fit).

Would be a blow of Collin is out injured after going off on Saturday, though. He's been immaculate so far this season.

 

[Optipez]

We're huffing and puffing a bit ourselves.
Will be going to this, hopeful rather than expecting us to win.
Expect Ameobi /Stead partnership up front, no pace as such but we win most arial battles and are useful at set pieces.
Nolan tends to make wholesale changes for Tuesday matches so I could be completely wrong.

Anyway, what's happened to Crewe, supporters were very upbeat, Dagnall / Porter were to be feared and Artell had you competitive back end of last season and on here at least fans were quite expectant for this season.
Why such a poor run of form ?

 

[TimeyWimey]

Anyway, what's happened to Crewe, supporters were very upbeat, Dagnall / Porter were to be feared and Artell had you competitive back end of last season and on here at least fans were quite expectant for this season.
Why such a poor run of form ?

Christ knows. A lot of that still applies, I still rate our team and it's unlike previous years, where we had the shittest team as well as manager. Artell did well in the summer transfer wise and talks the talk but on the pitch we're just... pants. This team/attack shouldn't struggle so much like it does in front of goal, not that we even create the chances, and it's got to be down to the management. One win in eight, that being a last minute winner vs a team twatted 7-1 yesterday, makes it seriously bleak.

 

[AFaceInTheCrowd]

Crewe fans I don't finish work until 6 but hoping to drive and make the game where's the best place to park arriving close to kick off and if I avoid the m6 are there any other roadworks etc? Realise I'm going to be cutting it fine to make kick off.

 

[TimeyWimey]

Crewe fans I don't finish work until 6 but hoping to drive and make the game where's the best place to park arriving close to kick off and if I avoid the m6 are there any other roadworks etc? Realise I'm going to be cutting it fine to make kick off.

Car park behind main stand. Always plenty of spaces, about £3.

 

[william death]

Our only real certs to start are the CB pairing, and maybe the CM pairing. Other than that, expect wholesale changes. Surely Forte will come in for Stead, who played the full 90 on Saturday? If the game is tight after an hour or so, Grant will almost certainly come on.

I'll guess at:

Collin/Fitzsimons if Collin injured
Hunt, Brisley, Duffy, Dickinson/Jones if fit
Hawkridge, Yates, Hewitt, Walker
Ameobi, Forte

Subs
Keeper
Grant
Stead
Allesandra
Tootle
Hollis
Milsom

Hopefully 500+ Notts in attendance...

 

[LongEatonPie]

I always look at this fixture thinking we’d do well to get a point, but somehow despite many different playing styles we always seem to grab a win.

As said, we will probably make 3-4 changes with the long trip to Carlisle coming up.

Tough to call but hope the trend continues and we come away with a win. 0-1 or 1-2

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Agreed usually when doing well the same side (bar injuries/suspensions) play week in week out." If it's ain't broke..."

Usually chopping and changing happens when teams are struggling . I can't quite get used to it, but I trust Super Kev .

So team could be almost anything as stated , hard for opposition to prepare I guess

 

[Youpies]

I'd be impressed if we took 500 to Crewe on a Tuesday night.

I think its likely either Fitz or Pindroch will be in for Collin. A bang on the knee is pretty painful and can hang around a surprisingly long amount of time.

I also think despite being our best player on Saturday, Ameobi wont be able to play Tuesday. Don't think his body will stand up to it. We may even go with Forte in a 451

 

[Crewelad87]

The biggest away win banker of the season

Crewe 0-3 Notts

 

[AFaceInTheCrowd]

Nothing is for certain in this league we travel in a good place but as you saw with FGR result at Meadow Lane we are far from invincible it's not a forgone conclusion.

 

[RavenBish]

can't expect to keep resting half your team for midweek games and not get picked off at some point.

 

[JJ1532]

Well, god only knows where that came from. Man were we good tonight. Every single player put in a great shift for the entire 90, not seen a performance like that in a long long time. Seen flashes and spells in games, but not a 90 minute game where we were good from the first to the last minute.

Yes, County rested a number of their strongest players and clearly weren't at the races today, but it shouldn't detract from the fact we were excellent. Cracking display, brilliant win. Nice to know this team does have a few surprises in them.

 

[jacobncfc]

Crewe looked like the best team we've played and by quite some distance imo. Passed it crisply, had great movement, thoroughly deaerved to win.

We were poor and Nolan's rotation system massively failed for the first time. The second goal completely against the run of play killed us, but we can't complain too much. We need to work on a Plan B - invariably we will win if we get ahead but we look devoid of ideas when chasing an equaliser.

 

[TimeyWimey]

Well bloody hell.

 

[AFaceInTheCrowd]

Just back very poor that Crewe deserved the win and were better than their league position suggests no arguements about the result. There was never 3000+ in that ground tonight.

 

[jacobncfc]

Not sure why they even bother opening that stand to the left of the away end, was 13 people in it.

 

[dannyc5]

Not sure why they even bother opening that stand to the left of the away end, was 13 people in it.

Much like 90% of your ground.

 

[LongEatonPie]

I don’t have OCD but that has just made the WDL look very awkward!

 

[william death]

Well that was shite. Way too many long balls up to Forte and Allesandra, who were never going to win them against two big CBs. I don't think Raynes lost a header all night - it was meat and drink to him. Never once did we use the relative pace of the front two to get in behind them. Didn't get going at all, and conceded two bad goals. Disappointed we didn't change tack when it was obvious our first tactic wasn't working.

All in all a bad night - the only positive was the guy selling pizzas outside the ground.

Crewe were far better than expected, even Perry Ng who sounded and looked like he would be shit. Harried us constantly and Bowery and Porter held it up well up front.

 

[TimeyWimey]

We proved last night we can be pretty good and effective in front of goal. This is a decent set of players. Where that sort of performance has been since August is confusing. Notts were clearly a half decent team playing badly, can't remember a decent chance of theirs. It was worrying how early we sat back in the second half but once we got the second, the game was over.

If last night doesn't help steady the ship and set us on our way to at least consolidate in mid-table before Christmas then there isn't much hope. Time for Artell to make the most of a confident set of players. Same again against Accy and then we've got some winnable league games coming up in the next few weeks. Shame the FA Cup and thingamajig trophy has to get in the way.

 

[Optipez]

Abject performance last night. Fair play toCrewe, deserved the win.
We aren't a table topping team, I'd snap anyone's arm off for seventh right now.
When the subs came on and only a goal down I thought we'd get the equaliser as we upped the tempo, that second goal killed us.
Were now conceding every match and are unable to win if we concede first. I hope I'm wrong but suspect we may have peaked for the season.