Crewe Alexandra start pre-season with back-to-back victories

Two wins from two against Nantwich Town and Witton Albion give Crewe the perfect start to pre-season.

The Alex kicked off their pre-season at the weekend with a trip to Nantwich Town. David Artell’s side controlled the game throughout to come away with an impressive 4-1 victory thanks to goals from Tyreece Onyeka, Regan Griffiths, Joe Robbins and Josh Lundstram.

Onyeka opened the scoring thanks to Travis Johnson, who showed his pace to beat Nantwich’s full-back before finding the 19-year-old with a pullback. The forward fired low past the goalkeeper to open the scoring at the second attempt after he saw his first attempt come back off the post.

Individual brilliance from Griffiths brought the second goal for Crewe after he received the ball 30 yards out from goal. He eased past a defender and unleashed a rocket that left the goalkeeper with no chance to double the advantage for his side just before the half-time interval.

At that point, the Alex changed their entire starting 11 for the second-half, and undoubtedly, the changes affected the flow of the game, with the Dabbers pulling a goal back themselves and coming close to levelling the game had it not been for an excellent reflex save from Will Jaaskelainen. That was notably the best moment of the game for Nantwich, though their opportunity had gone begging.

Crewe grew into the second period after this and eventually showed their dominance through two late goals. Robbins, who looked threatening down the right for the entirety of the second half, saw his cross go under the arms of Greg Hall and into the far corner of the net.

Lundstram then grabbed the fourth in the final minutes to cap off a great start to a long pre-season which will see the Alex face both Wolverhampton Wanderers and Stoke City in the next 10 days.

In the second game, Crewe travelled to Wincham Park to face a new look Witton Albion side who featured nine trialists in their own squad respectively.

With Witton a team from the seventh tier, the quality between the two sides was clear to see in the opening 45 minutes as the visitors took a commanding 4-0 lead into the break. Owen Dale scored the first as he played a one-two with Mikael Mandron and hit a thunderous strike into the top corner. A deflected cross then fell kindly into the path of Christopher Long who doubled Crewe’s advantage.

The easiest decision of the day for the referee set up the third as Dale was fouled inside the area, and from the resulting penalty, Mandron made no mistake from the spot.

It could have been even worse for Witton as Crewe had two goals ruled out for offside before they scored the fourth. Another stroke of luck did go the way of the Alex as before the break they saw the ball land at the feet of Oli Finney who found the back of the net from close range.

As the game resumed post-interval, it took very little time for Crewe to cause more problems in attack. Just eight minutes into the second-half, the visitors made it 5-0. Another unbelievable strike from Dale saw his left-footed effort fly into the top corner. The 22-year-old looked a class above the rest all evening and is definitely one for Alex fans to watch heading into the new League One season.

Once the fifth goal had gone in, both sides looked towards the substitutes bench with Witton bringing on four trialists at once.

That number of changes affected the flow of the game with Crewe controlling possession but creating very few goal-scoring opportunities. In the closing minutes of the match, a magnificent exchange of passes between Dale and Charlie Finney set Long away to find Mandron free in the middle and the Frenchman grabbed his second and Crewe’s sixth.

In their first season back in League One, Crewe finished 12th. Just like all sides throughout the Football League, players leave and new players come in.

Manager David Artell will hope that he can improve on that 12th position in the new season and to do so, he will be looking to keep centre back Luke Offord fit consistently. He missed the end of last season through injury but having returned to action in the last two games, he has looked calm and collected at the back.

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