By CCFC Sid
October 2 2003

Goals from McAllister (At last!) and Morrell gave CCFC victory over Crewe, in front of a disappointingly low Highfield Road crowd. The game also saw a return to first team action for Julian Joachim - and the former Villa man looked interested! CCFC could/should have opened the scoring after only four minutes, when a Konjic effort was cleared off the line by the head of Ben Rix.

Dele Adebola saw plenty of the ball against his old side in the first 45 minutes, and showed both his Jekyll and Hyde side on numerous occasions. He blazed a shot over the bar after nine minutes (When he should have at least hit the target), and he was unlucky not to win a penalty after a surging run was ended when he was brought down in the penalty area after 25 minutes - instead, Crewe were given a free-kick!! He also failed to control a simple ball after great work form Morrell, which, had he managed to do so, would have given him the chance to at least test Ince in the Crewe goal, but he allowed the ball to roll under his foot and out of the danger area. Minutes later Jorgensen found Adebola with a great lay-off which he tried to pass into the net, but, disappointingly, he gave Ince a simple catch to make. Possibly his worst effort came on thirty minutes as Adebola broke into the penalty area.and struck a shot from 15 yards out, that ended up going out of play for a Crewe free-kick - 16 yards up the pitch from the corner flag!

Barrett hit an effort into the side netting, despite Whing being in a better position to shoot, and, proving that he does actually know where the goal is, Safri saw a decent effort palmed away by Ince in the Crewe goal after 35 minutes. Four minutes later Crewe should have done better when a Konjic slip saw Crewe race forward, but blaze a good chance over the bar (With the majority of CCFC players still around the half-way line!) without testing Shearer. Konjic almost made up for the slip a minute later, going on one of his famous surging runs (Which would become far more famous if they had an end product!!), but running out of steam without unleashing a shot, and the ball was cleared for a corner.

Having dropped the clanger on Saturday that resulted in a draw for CCFC (rather than a victory), Shearer was rarely tested by Crewe, but when he was, he was lucky to escape without conceding a goal. On the stroke of half-time, an excellent Kenny Lunt free-kick had him well beaten, but the ball hit the post and bounced to safety. This was the second Lunt effort to hot CCFC's woodwork, and, with CCFC's reportoire from set pieces not so good of late, they could do worse than invite Lunt down to the training ground to give them lessons!

Joachim replaced Adebola at half-time, and in his first three minutes alone he did enough to justify his place in the squad. His pace caused maximum annoyance to the Crewe defence, and it was his cross that led to CCFC's first goal, as his inch perfect pass was headed home by Gary McAllister. Moments earlier Joachim had been unlucky not to give CCFC the lead himself, just being beaten to the ball by a Crewe defender, who headed the ball out for a corner.

Crewe were unfortunate not to equalise after a fortuitous Clayton Ince clearance (When CCFC were on the attack), landed at the feet of Jones, who out-paced Shaw with ease, and his shot beat Shearer but hit the inside of the post, went across the goal-mouth, and out to safety. The CCFC keeper was once again nowhere near the shot, and was very fortunate to escape without conceding.

Jorgensen endured a nightmare few minutes in the second half, managing to give the ball away every time it came to him, and it was no surprise when he was replaced by Mansouri (After 69 minutes) - though he was also unfortunate not to score on 56 minutes, after Ince dropped a fairly routine cross from McAllister, but the former Bradford player couldn't quite get to the rebound.

Morrell put the game beyond doubt with a supeb headed goal from a Safri free-kick after 73 minutes, and the game faded after that, with Crewe realising they were beaten, and CCFC not doing much to increase their lead. The only real incident worthy of note for the end of the game were a terrible challenge on Morrell with only minutes left, which gave CCFC a free-kick in a dangerous area (Which came to nil), and Joachim being unlucky not to win a penalty with only seconds of the match remaining.

* Thank You "The Commodore"!!