A winning start to our latest League One campaign today at Gresty Road. There will be few complaints given the relative weakness of our squad but there is clearly much improvement needed if we are to be seriously competitive this year.
I found the match hard to follow today. Crewe playing in red shirts and white shorts looked like Charlton and the stand opposite the camera was very reminiscent of the West Stand, with it's red seating and yellow-painted aisles with similar spacings. Crewe were also reminiscent of us at home in recent seasons, particularly when they went forward.
As expected, Ben Amos played in goal with Purrington, Oshilaja, Pratley and Barker in front of him. Oshilaja seemed to play very centrally and was responsible for much of the heavy-lifting. Pratley appeared to play slightly behind him and was invariably available for a back-pass or in support of Ben Purrington. It was my first sight of young Barker at right-back and he put in an encouraging performance.
Unusally, we started with only three in midfield, Gilbey, Forster-Caskey and George Lapslie. Forster-Caskey saw most possession and was guilty, I thought he over-hitting a number of forward balls butI am not complaining because we managed to hold on in the middle.
The three-man midfield meant the luxury of three front men and Washington, Bonne and Doughty were busy. Doughty's opening goal after 24 minutes was a well taken run in on goal and a drive which gave Jaaskelainen no chance. Conor Washington's debut goal just before half-time put us in the box seat and will have done his confidence a power of good coming after his international goal for Northern Ireland in the week.
I thought the timing of our goals was critical to the result. Crewe threatened on and off throughout the game but didn't get any breaks. Amos made a few smart saves when needed and the woodwork came to our assistance as well. The two goal cushion allowed us to sit back a bit at times in the second half and contain the game. Crewe's ambition probably deserved a goal and it might have spurred them on had it arrived. They are adjusting to life back in League One and perhaps won't have expected more than they got.
In the end it was job done but we will need to be better than this against the more established sides in this division. I think Lee Bowyer needs two of three better players as well as support in January if we have any hope of bouncing back. There's only one man who is going to provide that as things stand and his name isn't Paul Elliott. This was a home game for the conmen, so it was satisfying that none of them managed to spoil our day by showing their ugly faces.
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