A rather lengthy one (stop chuckling at the back), but for those who are interested here's my view from the away end yesterday. Three trains, after three hours sleep, following a nine hour flight, and I entered Gresty Road feeling absolutely knackered but unusually optimistic. It was a ground I'd never been to, my first game of the season, and having not witnessed the Crawley game I had yet to see what our new team had to offer. We started well and for the first 10 minutes looked threatening, Treacy's superb cross onto Winnall's head the highlight. Brown looked to get forward from RB and the gameplan seemed to be to hit Crewe down the flanks and put in as many crosses as possible. However problems arose when every ball started to go down the right to Brown, who to be fair to him retained the ball well and won a couple of corners/throw-ins, but didn't manage to put in any good crosses. This meant that the ball got no-where near Lita and Winnall, and the midfield was bypassed completely when I felt we should have been trying to play the ball into the forward's feet from the likes of Hourihane/Bailey/Berry. The latter was also miles away from Brown when he should have been providing some support, even though by trade he is a central player. Crewe absorbed what we offered well, but offered little in attack until their winger wasn't dealt with by Brown or Berry on the right and he whipped in a wonderful cross to the back stick where Waters, unmarked, smashed in a superb first-time volley. Out of the blue yes, but not surprising given the same pattern of play occurred in the cup last Tuesday. After that it was fairly poor stuff from both sides until half-time, where a small section of fans booed the players off. Understandable but not something I joined in with given it was only half way through their third game playing together. The second half began fairly quietely barring a superb last ditch tackle from Cranie to prevent their forward pulling the trigger, but the attacks down the right seemed a bit more urgent and sure enough the equaliser came from some persistent work by Winnall who won the ball back, charged into the box and fired a cross at their keeper, who could only palm it on to Lita who tapped in from a few yards out. Poor from Crewe's perspective, but they all count. After that, despite the fact we'd not won from behind for 60 odd games, it felt like there was only going to be one winner and Cranie powered in a header from Nyatanga's knockdown across goal to rapturous scenes in the away end. Other than another last ditch challenge from Cranie and a couple of pot-shots from Berry and Hourihane, little of note happened after the goal. Three academy lads, Digby, Oates and Bree came on to help see out the game and the latter skidded a superb cross inches in front of Winnall's outstretched boot to top off an imprssive cameo. So overall, a solid if unspectacular performance and a deserved 3 points away at a team tipped to struggle by many. Lots of room for improvement and the first half was as poor as any I saw last season, but the second half shows we've a team capable of grinding out the odd win or two and I look forward to seeing where they'll go after a confidence boosting victory. On the fans, 876 made the trip and were fantastic throughout, a few booed at half-time but the atmosphere never waned and only increased after we'd scored. I'd like to think we played a part in the dominant display following the equaliser. I've included my ratings of the players below, and I've also posted a thread with a couple of short videos I took on the day which include the goals. Don't know if I'm going to Northampton yet, if I do I'll provide another report whether you've enjoyed this one or not Cheers. Davies - 6: Had little to do but he confidently collected a couple of corners and punched another clear. Could do nothing about the goal. Dudgeon - 7: Put in a couple of great crosses in the second half and defended solidly. Cranie - 8 MOTM: Made two superb last ditch challenges, scored the winning goal and gave a commanding all round performance Nyatanga - 7: Provided the header on for Cranie's goal, and looked solid enough Brown - 6: Worked hard, but offered little quality going forward and should have tackled the winger who crossed for Water's goal Treacy - 6: Anonymous in the first half bar a great cross in the first minute, came into the game more in the second but still not fully fit Hourihane - 8: Won tackles, played some good passes and looks an all-round good player at this level Bailey - 7: Same as Hourihane but less of the tackling Berry - 7: Needed to support Brown more on the right, but worked very hard and looked to get a couple of shots off early. Will be a threat for us if player in the middle. Lita - 6: Held the ball well when played into his feet, scored from 6 yards, but didn't offer enough of the attacking threat expected of him and needs to work harder to complement Winnall's energy. Winnall - 7: Energetic, retained possession well and grabbed an assist through his persistence down the right. Looks more of a threat than Lita at present but he needs a goal, and if he works as hard as he did yesterday he'll get one sooner rather than later. Subs: Digby - 6: Put himself about and will be a great player for us if he can stay injury free and force his way into the starting 11 Bree: - 7: Defended well, put in a great cross an inch in front of Winnall's boot, and looks an exciting prospect Oates: - 6: Had a poor touch when a good one would have seen him clear through near the end, but a decent debut nonetheless.
Pretty much spot on that mate. We are a young maturing team and at times looked very naive, but also looked to play football the right way for the majority and when it worked it worked well. We are going to take a lot of knocks along the way, and im not sure if this season will lead to a promotion push, but if the team continues to grow and the fans stay patient with them the future looks very bright indeed and its been awhile since we have been able to say that.
Thanks for posting, its good to read the reports from fans who attended but a word of warning; anyone who thinks Cranie was the MoM know nothing about football (according to some who post on here).
Cheers lads. I tend to give reports for most away games I go to as I know a lot often can't get there for one reason or another, let's hope I'll be typing up another positive one if I go on Tuesday!
