Crewe suffer their first preseason defeat

Crewe fall to their first preseason loss at the hands of Michael O’Neil’s Stoke City

Following on from an excellent start to preseason with wins over Nantwich Town, Witton Albion and a 1-0 victory against Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers at the weekend. David Artell’s side welcomed Stoke City to the Mornflake Stadium on Tuesday night.

With the opening game of League One just over three weeks away. They faced an experienced Stoke side with the likes of Joe Allen, Steven Fletcher and Nick Powell all in the squad.

62 seconds is all it took for the opening goal of the game. Unfortunately for Alex fans, it went to the visitors.  Former Crewe player Powell hit the post with the first effort of the game. From the resulting corner, the ball was flicked on towards Morgan Fox. He also saw his effort hit the frame of the goal before the ball landed at the feet of Danny Batth who lashed home to give the visitors the perfect start.

The 20 minutes that followed were dominated by Stoke. Attempt after attempt on the Crewe goal forced Will Jaaskelainen into a number of good saves. None better than his reflex save from Jacob Brown’s close-range effort.

After the first drinks break due to the sweltering conditions on the pitch, play began with a Stoke corner and they took full advantage. Fletcher rose highest to head past a helpless Jaaskelainen. It almost got worse for The Alex as Mario Vrancic saw his effort come back off the crossbar.

On his return to the Mornflake Stadium Powell found himself with yards of space inside the area and he made no mistake with his header to send his team in at the break 3-0 ahead.

A very disappointing first half from David Artell’s side. They struggled for the entirety of the half to control the oppositions front three, with Vranic allowed the space to pull the strings from midfield. On the other hand, Stoke showed the difference in class between the two sides. They moved the ball around with a fast tempo creating goalscoring opportunities every time they went forward.

In the opening stages of the Second half, it was clear to see that Crewe had been told to be more defensive when out of possession. They got themselves in two lines of four to limit the space in behind the midfield for Stoke to exploit, and it worked. Crewe were able to stop Stoke’s attack whilst being a threat on the counter-attack themselves. Callum Ainley forcing Adam Davies in the Stoke goal into two sharp saves.

Entering the hour mark and the hosts got what they deserved from their Second half showing.  Josh Lundtsram picked up the ball just inside the area and curled a sublime effort into the top corner. Another brilliant strike in what seems to be a regular occurrence from this Crewe side during preseason.

It looked like Crewe had scored another goal minutes later only for the linesman to rule the goal out for offside. The celebrations weren’t cut short for long as Owen Dale found himself free in the area to reduce the deficit to one. Having brought the scoreline back to within one Crewe had chances to level the score but their headed attempts fell agonizingly wide. For the first time in preseason, Crewe tasted defeat falling to 3-2 loss to Stoke City.

A very impressive Second half performance from the League One side showed their ‘never give up attitude’ to get themselves back into the game when most sides could and probably would of accepted defeat at 3-0 down.

Crewe now move onto Saturday’s home game against another Championship opponent in Nottingham Forest.

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