Convincing victory for Crewe as leaders Peterborough miss key men

Crewe Alexandra moved four points clear of the drop zone on Saturday afternoon with a 2-0 win over leaders Peterborough United.

The three points for David Artell’s side, which came thanks to first half goals from Harry Pickering and Charlie Kirk, were thoroughly deserved.

They delivered what was, factoring in the theoretical strength of opposition, one of the most complete, accomplished performances of the League One season to date.

It was clear though, from the early stages, that their visitors were sorely missing key figures in Nathan Thompson and Jack Taylor for defence and midfield respectively, with both especially important to their work without the ball.

It could be that Darren Ferguson was trying to account for those individual losses by making the team more compact collectively, but this fed into Crewe’s possession-based hands.

The Railwaymen popped the ball around smoothly, playing out from the back with some assurance via centre-backs Omar Beckles – a versatile operator at this level – and 2019-20 breakout star Luke Offord, along with deep-lying playmaker Ryan Wintle.

With Peterborough keen to deny pathways in central areas, the Cheshire hosts looked for triangle-shaped combination play in wide areas when entering the final third.

Technical right-back Perry Ng shifted infield in possession, as did wide forward Daniel Powell, who used his physicality to retain the ball well in key areas, allowing Tommy Lowery to overlap from his right-sided midfield role in Artell’s 4-3-3.

It was Lowery who produced the cross for Oli Finney’s first chance of the game, which he nodded wide, shortly before unsuccessfully heading goalward Charlie Kirk’s cross from the left.

Kirk and Harry Pickering’s fine rotation of movement and interplay had been a feature of The Alex’s League Two promotion campaign and, as we saw here, the left-sided duo can also cause problems for lofty League One opposition.

Newcastle United manager Steve Bruce was present at Gresty Road and he will have liked what he saw of Kirk and Pickering, 22 and 21 respectively, who might just have made themselves the subjected of Toon interest.

Pickering is very much a modern full-back because, like Ng on the right, he is happy to hunt the inside spaces if the game opens up for him in those areas.

That is what tended to happen, because Kirk held the width for most phases of Crewe’s passing moves while Finney – who also drilled a shot wide on the first half’s midway point – made penetrative runs deep into the final third that created space for the duo to work their magic.

Pickering certainly did that because, after the excellent Finney won a free-kick after being tripped by Louis Reed, the academy graduate drilled it into the bottom right-hand corner.

Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson had started with a 4-2-3-1 rather than the 3-4-2-1 he has dabbled with for parts of the season but, with one fewer centre-back, his side struggled for options in possession.

For that reason, Posh were forced into aimless, panicked long balls that did not get remotely near the physical front-man Jonson Clarke-Harris, who found himself extremely isolated.

Darren Ferguson looks on as his side were beaten 1-0 by Crewe

A key factor behind Peterborough’s wayward use of the ball must be Crewe’s intense pressing, spearheaded by industrial target man Mikael Mandron, which bore fruit most emphatically shortly before the interval.

Niall Mason was forced into a risky, cross-field pass in his own half that was intercepted by Charlie Kirk, who raced through on goal to slot past Christy Pym, handing the visitors an uphill second half task in the process.

Mason was subsequently withdrawn at the break as Ferguson reverted to a back-three by bringing on Frazer Blake-Tracy, but it is credit to Crewe’s game management that the momentum of the contest did not change.

In fact, Ferguson completed all three substitutions by adding Ethan Hamilton and Mo Eisa to the fray in the second half, before so much as a solitary change from Artell, which suggested a stark contrast in mood between the managers.

Eisa came close to halving the deficit but, when following up Reece Brown’s effort, was denied by an excellent, point-blank save from Will Jaaskelainen, but Posh only showed any semblance of creativity when the game was nearly gone.

Crewe did not leave anything to chance, though, with wide forward Owen Dale bringing fresh energy to help to enforce the press after replacing Powell, while Kirk was hassling and harrying deep into the final third in the closing stages.

Alex fans sadly could not supply their players the adrenaline to do that in person, but the occasional honked horns on cars passing by Gresty Road offered reminders they were there in spirit.

Those watching at home on iFollow must be immensely proud of their side, who moved up to the comfortable position of 13th.

Peterborough, meanwhile, saw their gap at the summit of League One cut to one point through Hull’s win over Burton.

Taylor, away on international duty, returns for next week’s hosting of Blackpool while Thompson misses three weeks with a hamstring problem.

If anyone had underrated their importance to this Posh side before Saturday’s defeat, they won’t now.

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