Crewe Vs Bradford

[Crewelad87]

Back to league action after our humbling defeat in the cup. Luckily I don't think it will effect us to much as played pretty well in parts, and even got a glowing review from the Villa boss. Bradford have had the week off though which is always an advantage. Another game in which the opposition bring a wave of ex Crewe players with them this time, Mellor, Cooke and Donaldson. Almost seems a life time ago Kelvin used to come round my house to play FIFA.

Crewe 3-2 Bradford (Kirk, Anene, Green, Donaldson, Cooke) 4,850 (1,500 Bradford)

 

[F!RTHY]

Not sure what to expect. Although we have only lost once, and seem to be defensively very sound, all the pre-season optimism appears to have vanished.

Gary Bowyer needs to find the right formation and just bloody stick with it. Chopping and changing every week is leaving the fans scratching their heads.

Has to be 4-4-2 - but with Sean Scannell set to leave, it does leave us short on the wing.

I actually think we’ll play the diamond until we find a replacement for Scannell.

GK: Richard O’Donnell

RB: Kelvin Mellor
CB: Anthony O’connor
CB: Ben Richards-Everton
LB: Connor Wood

DCM: Hope Akpan
CM: Matty Palmer
CM: Callum Cooke

CAM: Jamie Devitt

ST: James Vaughan
ST: Clayton Donaldson

Can’t see us conceding 3, but it does have score draw written all over it.

1,400 City

 

[Crewelad87]

Oh god Jamie Devitt. Will be interesting to watch Ng vs Devitt again. It got abit fiesty last season resulting in Devitt getting sent off.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

Going to go 1-1, but loss if Akpan starts such is his uselessness. Imagine Crewe will be good on the ball in midfield, can't afford a passenger.

 

[LS Bantam]

Not convinced with this one, I’ve no faith in Bowyer to pick a side that can win, home win.

 

[The Alex]

I can’t see us being up for this one, coming of a loss in the league, and an anticlimactic gut wrenching blow from Villa. Maybe that’s just me though.

3-1 to Bradford, more defensive mistakes from calamity Lancashire dragging Nolan down with him.

Would be really nice to rinse that rat faced, head kicker Devitt though again.

 

[JJ1532]

Good to see everyone is confident.

I too share a pessimistic view. Reckon we'll lose 1-0, as Bradford pounce on an error and shut the door on us. Got to score first, do that and we've got a great chance of getting a result.

 

[The Alex]

Award for the tamest set of fans to let a smoke bomb off goes to Bradford. It’s like you’ve rented a mob from Cheltenham.

 

[TimeyWimey]

Sounds like we can't hit a barn door despite making loads of chances. Now 1-0 down.

 

[The Alex]

Sounds like we can't hit a barn door despite making loads of chances. Now 1-0 down.

We’re doing fuck all, Bradford are there for the taking, none of our players can be arsed it seems.

 

[The Alex]

And we’ve barely had a “chance”

 

[The Alex]

Having a keeper who’s about 5”9 really does us no favours.

 

[The Alex]

There we go, Crewe goal, from absolutely nothing, just one of our players in acres of space. Bradford are shocking and there for the taking if we can be arsed, which we aren’t.

 

[TimeyWimey]

Kirk scoring is a shocker.

 

[TimeyWimey]

Another win, back in the top 3 after 6 games and still improvement to come. Can't grumble.

 

[The Alex]

Team there for the taking, gets taken. Bradford don’t turn up to Gresty Road with Clayton Donaldson expecting the same Donaldson that tore it up here 10 years ago for us.

We didn’t even play well today compared to other games. Only thing that will stop us going up this year is ourselves, shit refs (may aswell have worn a Bradford shirt today), and Plymouth.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

Team there for the taking, gets taken. Bradford don’t turn up to Gresty Road with Clayton Donaldson expecting the same Donaldson that tore it up here 10 years ago for us.

We didn’t even play well today compared to other games. Only thing that will stop us going up this year is ourselves, shit refs (may aswell have worn a Bradford shirt today), and Plymouth.

No idea what nonsense you are saying but you were certainly the far better team today, ref played no part and had little to do though very strange comments.
But you should have beaten us by far more, walked through our none existent midfield at will. No idea why we tried 3 at back, you looked like scoring whenever you came forward. As for the old we’ve played far better is that the generic comment for football fans when their team dominate a game but only win by a small margin?

 

[JJ1532]

It was the same old story for the first 40 or so minutes. Play pretty well, miss 3 great chances(2 from Green, one from Kirk) and then they go and pinch one at the other end. I think Jaaskelainen got a hand on the initial effort that hit the bar, balls that bounce right onto the head of the attacker are always a bit fortunate.

Finally got the goal we deserved through another counter, Bradford were so open, you wonder how they've only conceded 2 before today. 2nd half started scrappy, then Tommy Lowery of all people bends one into the corner from the edge of the box. Stunning finish.

Nervy moments in the final 10, including Will coming for a cross, missing it completely and it hitting one of their players and thankfully sailing over.

Deserved win overall. 12 points from a possible 18 and finishing a very tough August is excellent.

 

[lordofthepies]

I actually thought we were pretty poor until we scored. Lowery had his worst half in absolutely ages. The second half was a completely different story though, we played some beautiful football at times.

 

[The Alex]

No idea what nonsense you are saying but you were certainly the far better team today, ref played no part and had little to do though very strange comments.
But you should have beaten us by far more, walked through our none existent midfield at will. No idea why we tried 3 at back, you looked like scoring whenever you came forward. As for the old we’ve played far better is that the generic comment for football fans when their team dominate a game but only win by a small margin?

I’m not talking any nonsense mate, we were genuinely better when Plymouth beat us 3-0.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

It was the same old story for the first 40 or so minutes. Play pretty well, miss 3 great chances(2 from Green, one from Kirk) and then they go and pinch one at the other end. I think Jaaskelainen got a hand on the initial effort that hit the bar, balls that bounce right onto the head of the attacker are always a bit fortunate.

Finally got the goal we deserved through another counter, Bradford were so open, you wonder how they've only conceded 2 before today. 2nd half started scrappy, then Tommy Lowery of all people bends one into the corner from the edge of the box. Stunning finish.

Nervy moments in the final 10, including Will coming for a cross, missing it completely and it hitting one of their players and thankfully sailing over.

Deserved win overall. 12 points from a possible 18 and finishing a very tough August is excellent.

For some reason we tried 3 at the back, as you say so open. If your finishing wasn’t so poor you could have had 5 or 6.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

I’m not talking any nonsense mate, we were genuinely better when Plymouth beat us 3-0.

What’s that got to do with us though? The ref was fine today the only reason you didn’t win by more was your own poor finishing. The way your comments are going you’d think you’d just lost not won.

 

[The Alex]

The ref was poor, multiple times our players got fouled, he gave nothing, 2 seconds later a Crewe player puts half the challenge in and he blows. The last 10 minutes he was bad for us.

 

[The Alex]

It was the same old story for the first 40 or so minutes. Play pretty well, miss 3 great chances(2 from Green, one from Kirk) and then they go and pinch one at the other end. I think Jaaskelainen got a hand on the initial effort that hit the bar, balls that bounce right onto the head of the attacker are always a bit fortunate.

Finally got the goal we deserved through another counter, Bradford were so open, you wonder how they've only conceded 2 before today. 2nd half started scrappy, then Tommy Lowery of all people bends one into the corner from the edge of the box. Stunning finish.

Nervy moments in the final 10, including Will coming for a cross, missing it completely and it hitting one of their players and thankfully sailing over.

Deserved win overall. 12 points from a possible 18 and finishing a very tough August is excellent.

Supposedly our toughest month and we’ve come out strong? Queue multiple defeats to tin pot easy games.

 

[Crewelad87]

We weren't at our best until we scored but saying that we missed a few very good chances. But once we scored there was only one team in it. Played some fantastic football and Bradford couldn't cope, they looked slow and tired and a little lost at times. Our midfield 3 of Wintle, Green and Lowery are better than anything else in this league imo. Our only problems at the moment are our lack of a killer instinct. We must be averaging nearly 20 shots a game but only scoring one or two a game. Also the keeper still worries me a little, especially against the bigger more physical teams, that pump the ball in the box.

It's becoming harder and harder not to get carried away, but at this moment if be massively shocked if we don't atleast finish in the play offs. The real test will come when we lose a couple of games back to back, which is bound to happen at some point.

 

[Scamperdale]

Some of the best football I’ve seen at Crewe since the days of Nick Powell. As has been said above it’s tough not to get carried away at the moment. If only we could put a few more of those chances away.

As expected good away support for Bradford but a disappointing reaction from their team who looked flat today. Bowyer looked like a man under pressure and couldn’t come up with a plan to stop our midfield.
Ref, as usual in L2 at the moment, was poor, making mistakes that effected both teams.

 

[JJ1532]

I wouldn't make any predictions yet. It's only 6 games, still 40 left to go. Teams have been in a top 7 spot all season only to crumble and blow it in the last month. Injuries, player sales in January, heck even Artell getting poached, these are all things that could derail the season in the next 9 months.

Long long way to go.

 

[Crewelad87]

I wouldn't make any predictions yet. It's only 6 games, still 40 left to go. Teams have been in a top 7 spot all season only to crumble and blow it in the last month. Injuries, player sales in January, heck even Artell getting poached, these are all things that could derail the season in the next 9 months.

Long long way to go.

One thing you can guarantee is that come January Artell will turn into full on car salesman mode trying to convince someone to buy one of our better players, with us being so desperate for a sale.

 

[TimeyWimey]

I think what is getting people excited is that it's not a flash in the pan bit of form after 6 games. We've been top (end) of the L2 form table since late last year and performance wise continue to improve. There's also the added factor that our seasons only tend to get going in February, so to start well is like getting a head start.

That said, we've still space to improve. Our defence is ropey with probably the most inexperienced keeper in the league (but looks like we'll have to live with it) and we are far from clinical enough. Like the Crewe of old though, if we start putting away our chances then it won't matter a jot about the defence. And I'm actually quite confident, considering the upward trajectory of the last 12 months, Artell and Lunt will get the attackers firing.

But let's bloody enjoy being half decent rather than worry about when/if it'll all go wrong.

 

[LS Bantam]

First time on since last week (Safari saying the sites certificate has expired (probably discussed elsewhere)), a predictable defeat as I mentioned above - Bowyer’s support lessens by the day after the never ending baffling choices he makes, a big but expectant disappointing day to sign some late square pegs for our round holes.