 | Gifton Noel-Williams - held the ball up well |
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In reality, the vast majority of the travelling support knew that the Railwaymen would give us a very big test. Make no mistake about it, Crewe outplayed Burnley for large sections of what was an entertaining game and they fully deserved their victory.
Michael Duff as initially expected didn’t make the starting line up and with longer term treatment required for Danny Karbassiyoon, the Burnley squad looked paper thin to say the least.
Following an immaculately observed silence for Ben Tinsely; a Crewe Academy youngster who recently lost his life in a serious boat accident the game got underway. Wade Elliot showed immediate promise down the right hand side, but Tonkin closed him down well, forcing him out wide at every opportunity.
Burnley’s first chance came from the left hand side after Gifton Noel-Williams had been awarded a free kick. Nothing materialised though as a poor in swinging cross from Garreth O’Conner met the head of the outward moving Alex defence.
Crewe’s first real attempt at goal nearly saw us go a goal behind. An in swinging corner was flapped at by Danny Coyne in goal, but fortunately the shot which followed the fumble flew well over.
As the first half progressed, our utility man, Graham Branch made headway down the left side, getting in a number of decent crossing positions and linking well with Garreth O’Conner. On the right side, Elliott was continuing to show good form, but his final balls into the danger area didn’t provide a serious threat to Williams in the Crewe goal.
After a promising start to the game, Crewe then began to dominate, changing their approach from being very direct, to the one which Dario Gradi has moulded all his Crewe sides on; pass and move from defence to attack. On 21 minutes, the very impressive Steve Jones was put through on goal after McGreal and Thomas were caught napping high up the pitch. Jones elected to shoot from the edge of the box, only to see his shot parried well by Danny Coyne.
Five minutes later Jones beat the offside trap again and should have hit the target, but was thwarted by a very well timed Graham Branch tackle.
At the other end of the field, Ade and Gifton were receiving very little quality service from the Burnley midfield. Indeed it was only when Gifton dropped deep, to win and hold the ball up that more players were able to get forward. Gifton did this very well all afternoon and his headed flick ons were of a very high quality, an attribute which will serve us well during this campaign.
Before half time, Crewe had a further two goal scoring opportunities. Coyne had to be alert to tip over a dipping shot by Crewe full back Darren Moss, and he was left routed to his spot only moments later as Steve Jones steered a glancing header wide of the goal from inside of ten yards.
Right on half time came the sucker punch. McGreal was judged to have committed a foul, even though the linesman quite clearly waved for play to continue. A well worked free kick which was dummied, before being played across the box, presented Billy Jones with the opportunity to fire the ball into Coyne’s bottom right corner. It was a bitter pill to swallow as it was so close to half time, but it was a goal that had been coming.
Burnley kicked off the second half and were immediately on the attack searching for the leveller. The very impressive Sinclair had now found himself pushing high up the pitch, providing an extra outlet and further option for Wade Elliott. On two occasions in the second half, Sinclair’s desire to get forward yielded two Burnley corners, but unfortunately nothing was to materialise.
Once again, Irish international Steve Jones was soon back up to full speed and again was put through on goal; this time with Coyne being quick off his line to smother the ball on the edge of his box.
Burnley’s first noticeable chance of the second half came from a corner, which Elliott stood up to the back post. Frustratingly, Ade Akinbiyi was unable to flex his neck muscles enough to direct the ball goalwards, seeing his effort end in the side netting.
Burnley at this stage seemed to be entering a spell of their own. It was a period of high tempo football, full of good movement, culminating in a Wade Elliott shot from the edge of the area which was saved very well by Williams. From the following corner kick it was the turn of the Burnley supporters to celebrate.
The ball was whipped in to the back post by Garreth O’Conner, where Wayne Thomas rose higher than all Crewe’s rearguard to head the ball back across goal. Up at the back post Gifton Noel Williams was given space to nod the ball down into the empty goal and to register a debut goal in claret and blue.
Momentum was now with Burnley and we looked like we could go on and score again. Minutes later though, a serious clash of heads between John McGreal and Luke Varney appeared to bring an end to our new found desire to hunt down the Crewe goal. The latter exchanges were sloppy to say the least, with rash tackles, bookings and heavy legs all contributing to a poor finale.
Following another serious injury, this time to a Crewe player, James O’Connor proceeded to kick the ball down the field, giving the possession back to Crewe as a sporting gesture. Little did we know what was about to happen. The ball was then launched immediately back into the Burnley area and after bobbling around for a few seconds, the Burnley defence could only scuff the ball away. David Vaughan was the grateful recipient of this very poor piece of Burnley defending, given time to bring the ball under control, steady himself, turn and place a strike across Danny Coyne into the right side of the goal.
There was no way back for Burnley now and even though Cotterill brought on Kyle Lafferty and played three upfront for the four minutes of added time, the Crewe players were happy enough to eat up time down by the corner flag.
The game ended 2-1 in favour of the home side and it was a win that Crewe well and truly deserved in Dario Gradi’s 1001st game in charge. Frank Sinclair and Gifton Noel-Williams get my shout for MOM, but today there simply were not enough good performances, particularly from the midfield.
The sooner Tuesday evening comes the better now - this is a game that we need to erase from the memory quickly!