Disappointing start

It wasn’t to be though and apart from two spells, one in each half, we failed to rise to the occasion as the new season finally got underway and we couldn’t even field a full bench with the injured Michael Duff and reserve team coach Mark Yates making up the numbers.

The afternoon started on a sombre note with a minute’s silence for Ben Tinsley, an eight year old member of the Crewe Alex academy who, along with his granddad, was tragically killed in a summer boating accident. With members of his family present the tribute to the youngster was impeccably observed by supporters of both clubs before referee Webster got things underway.

With both Duff and Danny Karbassiyoon ruled out, and with Danny Coyne the choice in goal, it was the same side that had started a week earlier against SV Wacker Burghausen with the exception of Micah Hyde returning for youngster Chris McCann who was on the bench along with Kyle Lafferty who had flown back in after playing for the Northern Ireland Under 19s last night.

If we were looking for a bright start then we got it and it was down the right hand side in particular where we were able to attack Crewe with Frank Sinclair and new signing Wade Elliott linking up well. The only disappointment was the quality of the balls into the box but for the opening quarter of an hour Crewe didn’t seem to be able to get into the game.

We did get two or three shots in at goal, and all of them seemed to come from the other new recruit from Bournemouth, Garreth O’Connor. His willingness to have a shot at goal was refreshing and it was obvious why he had scored so often last season.

Captain Frank had made a terrific start and even decided to take on the Crewe stewards as well. A couple of them, carrying out their duties diligently, were sat on stools watching the game but Frank pushed one of them over and chucked his stool away as they got in the way of him taking a throw in.

It would probably have been a life ban at the Turf but the police laughed at it and the red faced steward just carried on watching.

The home side started to have some joy at last and in particular were able to get down our left hand side. They were beginning to make things a bit uncomfortable for us and worryingly we were looking far from secure at the back.

The game was changing and Dario G’s boys were getting on top and really should have got themselves in front. They were anything but sharp in front of goal, for which we were thankful on more than one occasion.

“We need half time,” said a friend with just a couple of minutes left in the first half but unfortunately by the time we got there we had gone a goal behind and one that was wrapped in controversy.

Referee Webster awarded Crewe a free kick on the edge of our box despite the much better placed assistant clearly telling him there had been no foul. Worse still, he yellow carded John McGreal, and worse still it led to the opening goal.

The free kick was knocked to Billy Jones who somehow managed to hit a shot into the bottom corner. Whether it should have been dealt with by Danny Coyne was difficult to see from the vantage point on the side but it was certainly a soft goal.

1-0 at half time was probably just about fair and there was work to do for us to get back into it. After a quiet opening to the second half we did just that and in a fifteen minute spell we got ourselves very much on top.

Frank headed over; Ade should have scored and then had a good run that the defender was only just able to prevent. The Crewe keeper made a superb save to deny James O’Connor who had two excellent shots at goal. It was all Burnley but we needed a goal and it finally came courtesy of Gifton Noel-Williams who notched his first Burnley goal on his league debut.

The save from James O’Connor led to a corner and Elliott found Wayne Thomas at the far post. He headed back across goal for Gifton to head home and you sensed the Clarets were now set to go on and win it.

Disappointingly it didn’t happen and the game lost its rhythm with a bit of nastiness. Crewe will point the finger, they always do, but they were far from Dario G’s little innocents as we have seen all too often before.

They’d spent the first twenty minutes of the second half blatantly time wasting, how long does it take a keeper to take a goal kick? Now they were niggling and then going down far too easily.

It all worked for them though and we never really threatened again with the blow coming just over a minute from the end of normal time when David Vaughan hit a winner for them. There was no way back this time although Kyle Lafferty, who came on after the winner, linked with Gifton who came close to a second but his effort came back off the bar.

So a defeat to start, not enough players, and a performance that all round was not good enough. The midfield was poor, and there will have to be improvements in that area. The centre of defence looked worrying at times but I did think the full backs played well.

As for the forwards, they did as well as could be expected given the lack of service – and thankfully one of them did get off the mark.

It is captain Frank who wins my man of the match award though, he had a good game both defensively and coming forward, not only that we found out he has a long throw.

We’ve two home games now and we’ve already put ourselves under pressure to get something but this squad needs strengthening and needs strengthening very quickly. A couple more injuries now could leave us in a very worrying position.

The teams were,

Crewe: Ben Williams, Darren Moss, Richard Walker, Adie Moses, Anthony Tonkin, Kenny Lunt, Billy Jones, David Vaughan, Steve Jones (Mark Rivers 73), Luke Varney, Eddie Johnson (Michael Higdon 82). Subs not used: Ross Turnbull, Stephen Foster, Gary Roberts.

Burnley: Danny Coyne, Frank Sinclair, Wayne Thomas, John McGreal, Graham Branch, Wade Elliott, Micah Hyde, James O’Connor, Garreth O’Connor (Kyle Lafferty 89), Ade Akinbiyi, Gifton Noel-Williams. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Chris McCann, Mark Yates.

Referee: Colin Webster (Shotley Bridge).

Attendance: 8,006.