Crewe vs Exeter

[Moomin]

So this is one of our games in hand, and one we really need to win after Saturday’s shower of shit.

I’m hoping for significant changes which will see the likes of Woodman, James and Tillson dropped as they neither can kick a ball properly. Bring back in Boateng, Harley and Holmes who can actually play some good stuff. We will probably be unchanged knowing Tisdale.

0-0

 

[JJ1532]

After something of a surprise win on Saturday, I would happily take a point here. Exeter are clearly no mugs despite their recent dip and one win hasn't solved our problems. We're still very poor in terms of going forward and creating chances, against Exeter's defence we could struggle. My only change from Saturdays team would McKirdy in for Kirk on the left wing.

 

[Moomin]

I see Shaun Miller scored on Saturday. Always thought he was decent and he scored against us a couple of times in the past. Need to keep him quiet.

Will Raynes play? He’s been poor the last few times I’ve seen him at SJP for Crewe and Carlisle. Fancy Stockley to give him problems.

 

[Douglas_Valley_Reds]

I will take the point now, it would keep a little run of results going at home. I went the reverse fixture at SJP in September, it was the match that popped the optimism bubble after a decent start, if I remember rightly it led to the Carlisle 1-5 home debacle the following Saturday and a shocking run of results all the way into October.

We as fans are that fragile that when we win a game we expect a failure in the following fixture, we just don't seem to be able to string a run of results together, however, in true Crewe Alexandra fashion I think we will win, just because there is a fans forum on the horizon and we always seem to win a few around these events, as if the team try and soften the punters up, though that might be a bit more difficult this time around

 

[JJ1532]

I see Shaun Miller scored on Saturday. Always thought he was decent and he scored against us a couple of times in the past. Need to keep him quiet.

Will Raynes play? He’s been poor the last few times I’ve seen him at SJP for Crewe and Carlisle. Fancy Stockley to give him problems.

Miller is alright, an average striker for this level. He's scored 2 in 4 starts, so his record is half decent in a very small sample size. He's the only one in our team scoring at the moment, so yeah, keep him quiet and your job is mostly done.

As for Raynes, I doubt he'll play. He was dropped just over a week ago after some dreadful performances and mistakes. He played last Tuesday due to illness of one of our CBs, but unless an unforeseen injury hits, he won't start. It'll be Perry Ng and Eddie Nolan.

Hopefully we give you more of a game than we did at St James Park. But then to be fair, we won't have a CM starting at RB and a disjointed 3 man midfield, so it shouldn't be too hard. Plus you guys seem to struggle a bit away from home, so that might give us a chance.

 

[JJ1532]

We as fans are that fragile that when we win a game we expect a failure in the following fixture, we just don't seem to be able to string a run of results together, however, in true Crewe Alexandra fashion I think we will win, just because there is a fans forum on the horizon and we always seem to win a few around these events, as if the team try and soften the punters up, though that might be a bit more difficult this time around

Dude, we had a forum shortly after we went down out of League One and there was no real anger or discontent. We had one last season when we were struggling and they kept peddling shit. This time around, they'll tell us from the start that there will no talk about any of the backroom stuff and especially nothing about the last weeks events. So the pertinent questions won't get asked or answered. Not even sure why I'm going, it'll be a complete non-event.

 

[Douglas_Valley_Reds]

Dude, we had a forum shortly after we went down out of League One and there was no real anger or discontent. We had one last season when we were struggling and they kept peddling shit. This time around, they'll tell us from the start that there will no talk about any of the backroom stuff and especially nothing about the last weeks events. So the pertinent questions won't get asked or answered. Not even sure why I'm going, it'll be a complete non-event.

I wouldn't be shocked if it got cancelled at the last minute. The last time I went to one I had a drunken conversation with Steve Holland, Steve was not drunk I may add.

 

[TimeyWimey]

If we win this we'll have some serious, unexpected breathing room going into an easier set of games (post Lincoln). All the better if Barnet don't win.

Would snap your hand off for that 0-0 draw though.

 

[Douglas_Valley_Reds]

If we can get something out of this, I will start to have a bit more belief in us staying up, before Colchester I was convinced we were gone and could not see where the points were going to come from, now I think our home form may just save us, and Barnet and Chesterfield leaving any burst of form too late.

 

[denzel ecfc]

No chance of us scoring more than 1. I am not expecting anything out of this game. Hope at least we start with Boateng, Holmes and Edwards and show a bit of attacking intent

 

[markpvfc]

Surely even by Crewe's recent record of throwing away winning situations, tonights effort takes the biscuit. Take the lead on 88 and still find a way of losing.

 

[Moomin]

I can’t believe that. A 0-0 draw looked nailed on and it was a fairly even game I think.

But, to go 1 nil drown was not surprising as we had a few scares. What a way to win it though and Crewe fans must be fuming. Moore-Taylor snatching the equaliser and Stockley smashing in a 95th minute winner.

That would normally be quality on its own but our winner won me my £70 acca too so that was the ultimate win win.

All that being said, we have to capitalise on this. We do have some weaknesses but we never ever give up and with Stockley scoring we always have a chance...On to Grimsby.

 

[Chris FGR]

League table showing we're now above Crewe for some reason.

 

[valefan16]

League table showing we're now above Crewe for some reason.

Goals scored.

 

[Vanni]

Nah, I think it's on games played.

 

[AdamStag]

Given the loss to us and going down 1-0 on the 88th minute that's a brilliant come back from Exeter. Bit of a shame for Mansfield in both ends of the league.

Wonder what odds you'd have got if one lucky punter put a tenner on an Exeter winner at 1-0

 

[denzel ecfc]

Wow. Just wow.

 

[Davidimp]

Surely even by Crewe's recent record of throwing away winning situations, tonights effort takes the biscuit. Take the lead on 88 and still find a way of losing.

When you start finding ways like that to lose you know you're in trouble, big trouble.

 

[Crewelad87]

I' not even bothered anymore. It' not shocking or unbelievable, weve seen it happen that many times now I think I'm immune to it.

 

[JJ1532]

I' not even bothered anymore. It' not shocking or unbelievable, weve seen it happen that many times now I think I'm immune to it.

Yep, pretty much this.

0-0 or a draw would have been fair, the worst thing we did was score. As soon as the equaliser went in, it was so obvious we would crumble, because every time we get a set back, the crawl up our arses and hide. We'd defended brilliantly for 90 minutes, yet the goals we conceded were some of the worst defending you are ever likely to see. Player waltzes through our entire team to score and the winner is a cross to the far post with nobody close to Stockley.

Meh, not even arsed. Anything less than a hammering on Saturday and then the real fight to stay up begins. Already over it.

 

[Grecian O'Grecian]

Given the loss to us and going down 1-0 on the 88th minute that's a brilliant come back from Exeter. Bit of a shame for Mansfield in both ends of the league.

Wonder what odds you'd have got if one lucky punter put a tenner on an Exeter winner at 1-0

Funnily enough, I've seen on my timeline that someone put £2.50 on us at 500/1...

Huge win for us. The type of comeback we saw so much last season from ourselves. Hopefully this can really spur us on! We've got relatively kind fixtures for the next 5 or so games so a real chance to push on.

 

[TimeyWimey]

Rinse, repeat.

 

[Douglas_Valley_Reds]

Yep, pretty much this.

0-0 or a draw would have been fair, the worst thing we did was score. As soon as the equaliser went in, it was so obvious we would crumble, because every time we get a set back, the crawl up our arses and hide. We'd defended brilliantly for 90 minutes, yet the goals we conceded were some of the worst defending you are ever likely to see. Player waltzes through our entire team to score and the winner is a cross to the far post with nobody close to Stockley.

Meh, not even arsed. Anything less than a hammering on Saturday and then the real fight to stay up begins. Already over it.

I blame the manager for this one, take Miller off, put a defensive midfielder on, invite last couple of minutes pressure onto a defence that cannot defend pressure. You are right, until we scored we defended manfully, Eddie Nolan was man of the match for me, we score, Atrtell takes Miller off, game over. We should have just stuck to how we were set up on 88 minutes, surely Artell must have noticed by now that we can't see games out.

 

[Sydney Posse]

Amazing result given the circumstances. By Tisdale's recent standards, this was an attacking line up, so I was optimistic we could win. Okay we left it very late and in other circumstances it would have been a draw (or a loss), but we needed that, and hopefully he allows the same players the opportunity against Grimsby

 

[JJ1532]

I blame the manager for this one, take Miller off, put a defensive midfielder on, invite last couple of minutes pressure onto a defence that cannot defend pressure. You are right, until we scored we defended manfully, Eddie Nolan was man of the match for me, we score, Atrtell takes Miller off, game over. We should have just stuck to how we were set up on 88 minutes, surely Artell must have noticed by now that we can't see games out.

Doesn't matter who you blame for this one defeat, we've lost 5 games like this where we've been leading and lost it late on. One game might be bad luck, another game might be managerial decisions, etc etc.

Eventually, you realise that as a collective, this group aren't very good. From the management to the players, to the board, to the academy, it is all not good enough and hasn't been for a while. That's why this keeps happening. The bad teams(as Barnet have also proved tonight) lose games by going ahead and conceding 2-3. The good teams either don't go behind or when they do, they have enough quality to turn it around. That's why Exeter did it tonight, because they are a good team. Look at Wycombe and how many games they've won late on. We are poor, which is why we keep losing in this fashion. Happened in the last few years when've struggled, but surprise surprise, when we were half decent in the 11/12 and 12/13 seasons, the splits were a lot closer.

We keep losing games like this because we are a poor team. That starts at the board level and it flows down to the academy, the coaches, the players coming through, the players we sign. All of them are not good enough and when you bundle them all up into a team, this is the result. Until the club has a massive shake down and overhaul, this will keep happening. Yes, maybe one time it'll be tactics, or bad luck, or a horrific mistake. But when it's happened 20-30 times over the last 5 seasons, eventually you realise it's more than one thing, its everything combined.

 

[Trapdoor]

Got to feel sorry for Crewe. Elated that city never gave up the fight though, feels so good to be a city fan today. The attitude after getting the equaliser was superb, no celebration, grab the ball and get the game started again. Never stopped believing we could get the 3 points.

 

[Moomin]

Got to feel sorry for Crewe. Elated that city never gave up the fight though, feels so good to be a city fan today. The attitude after getting the equaliser was superb, no celebration, grab the ball and get the game started again. Never stopped believing we could get the 3 points.

This.

Also just seen Artell’s comments that said our comeback was nothing to do with us, which is unfair I think. Ok, so Crewe capitulated but JMT showed superb determination for his goal and the cross from Holmes for Stockley was inch perfect.

Artell also said we only had one chance all game prior to our two goals, which again is bollocks. You can see from the highlights we had 4 chances before we even equalised.

 

[TimeyWimey]

This.

Also just seen Artell’s comments that said our comeback was nothing to do with us, which is unfair I think. Ok, so Crewe capitulated but JMT showed superb determination for his goal and the cross from Holmes for Stockley was inch perfect.

You have to take into account that we have capitulated so, so many times before like this. You will not find another club like it over the last 10-15 years. It's engrained within the club, never mind the team. Doesn't matter whether it's Man Utd (2006 ish?) or York City (2009ish?). So not unreasonable for Artell to question his own team before heaping praise on the opposition.

Plus, the defending for the winner was pathetic. From Bakayogo giving acres of space for the cross, to not one defender bothering with Stockley.

 

[valefan16]

You have to take into account that we have capitulated so, so many times before like this. You will not find another club like it over the last 10-15 years. It's engrained within the club, never mind the team. Doesn't matter whether it's Man Utd (2006 ish?) or York City (2009ish?). So not unreasonable for Artell to question his own team before heaping praise on the opposition.

Plus, the defending for the winner was pathetic. From Bakayogo giving acres of space for the cross, to not one defender bothering with Stockley.

To be fair listening to Praise and Grumble en route back from Vale I dont think I have heard Artell barely ever credit the opposition...

He moans a lot about not doing the basics when its clear you have massively fragile confidence will the attitude he is showing really help turn it around? We will both probably survive purely due to the direness of Barnet and Chesterfield currently who have both failed to take any advantage thus far.

 

[TimeyWimey]

Not really sure why football fans always want seal of approval from opposition managers tbh. It’s kinda their job to worry about their own side, I can’t remember the last time I gave another managers comments a moments thought. Artell is a poor manager (or at least one that’s learning on the job) who can ramble on once in a while but I don’t see it a big deal for him to be perplexed at last night. If you saw the game you’d have seen there was little reason for anyone other than Crewe fans to think Exeter had any chance of even a draw once we went 1-0 up. He’s right to be utterly pissed off at the mentality of these players.