Crewe Alex 24/25 Monthly Review - March

It's funny to see the collective patience of a fan base be tested to breaking point as much as to the Alex have done in these last few weeks. The frustration is borne out of the knowledge that they can easily hang with some of the best sides in the division. But these fans have seen their team fail, time and time again. And that has seen what looked like a promising promotion bid not turn into a desperate scramble to avoid their last few games now turning into dead rubbers. This is my review of a very disappointing March

Looking Back

It's funny to think how high we all were after their first game in March. Fresh off a great win over Barrow, they faced a Chesterfield teams with options returning. And they put in one of their best attacking displays of the season as they created chance after chance against a ragged Spireites back line. They scored 2 first half goals away from home, their first 2 in almost a year and probably should have put the game out of sight before a late Chesterfield goal threatened a comeback. Tommy Lowery's stoppage time goal wrapped up a fully deserved 3-1 win though, in one of their best all round displays of the season.

That was to be their high point though. Only a few days later, they were to suffer a sharp return to earth as they lost 4-1 at home to Fleetwood, a defeat made worse by Shilow Tracey's horrendous leg break midway through the first half. In truth, whilst the injury did dominate the post match thoughts, the Alex were thoroughly outclassed even before that. It wrecked all their confidence and they haven't got it back since.

They followed that up with a short trip into Manchester to play Salford. In a scrappy game on an awful pitch, Salford stole ahead midway through the 2nd half, but Connor O'Riordan's wonder strike 10 minutes from time rescued a draw, which probably should have been more as the Alex wasted several good chances to snatch the win.

Then they faced a run of 3 straight play-off teams, with Doncaster first up. The Alex grabbed a first half lead thanks to O'Riordan again. They looked very comfortable until 15 minutes from time, when an unmarked Owen Bailey nodded in a soft corner to level the game. Neither team was able to grab the win and it was another draw for the Alex.

Next up was a trip east to Notts County for another early kick off. It was a horribly drab game with few clear chances to speak of. County felt robbed by several reffing decisions, most of which were dubious in my opinion. But they did emerge with a creditable 0-0 draw, which in isolation wasn't a bad result.

Finally it was the big one, as Port Vale made the short trip up the A500 for their first visit since November 2019. In truth, the game went exactly how I imagined it would. A tight, cagey affair of few chances. But as usual, the Alex fluffed their openings whilst the Vale had the quality to nick one of theirs to keep their great run of results against the Alex going.

It capped off what was a truly awful month for the whole club, as their promotion bid went from likely to hanging by a thread in a few short weeks.

U21s

I'd like to say it was a better month for the U21s, but it wasn't. They slipped to the bottom of the North Division and whilst they did have a spirited 3-3 draw against Fleetwood, with 2 goals from Fin Roberts and one from Jordan Hodkin, they lost 4-1 at Hull, with Ben Calder scoring the only goal for the Alex.

They also blew their chance at silverware by losing 1-0 at Warrington Town in the Cheshire Senior Cup quarter-final in what was a very disappointing performance. It was a month with only 3 games, yet it still feels disappointing.

U18s

After a positive February, it was a poor March for the youngsters. They lost 4 straight games by a 15-3 margin to start the month and although they did marginally recover with a 3-0 home win against Hull, but they finished the month off with a defeat against Swansea. The youngsters, probably exhausted from all the U21s games they've been asked to play, look to be seriously running out of steam.

Injuries

It was a positive month on the injury front at least. They got Hemmings, Bogle, Lankester, Long and Demetriou back, but there is no sign of any imminent returns for Connolly or Finney. Tracey of course is out for the season and I'll include Thomas and Tabiner, who missed the Vale game through injury and was forced off during it respectively.

Player	Injury	Possible Return Date
Nathan Robinson(CB)	Knee	April
James Connolly(CB)	Hamstring	March
Charlie Finney(LB)	Hamstring	Mid-March
Shilow Tracey(ST)	Broken Leg	Sept-Oct
Joel Tabiner(AM)	???	Early April
Conor Thomas(CM)	???	Early April

Loans

Most of the Alex's loans wrapped up in March. The only players who I think are out currently are Owen Lunt, who is of course at Southport until the end of the season, and Fin Roberts, who joined Kidderminster in the National League North. He'll be hoping to cap his season off with promotion with the Harriers.

Player of the Month

Connor O'Riordan

He's not been faultless, but the Alex's defence hasn't been the issue recently. The Fleetwood shocker aside, he's been part of a defence which has conceded 4 goals in the other 5 games. And he finished the month as the teams top scorer. Which is both a credit to him and a damning indictment of the rest of the team.

Previous Winners:

August: Filip Marschall

September: Ryan Cooney

October: Ryan Cooney

November: Matus Holicek

December: Jack Lankester

January: Jamie Knight-Lebel

February: Connor O'Riordan

Step It Up

Tommy Lowery

As usual, there are a few players here which I feel could have been named. And I know this pick will draw criticism. However, since the Chesterfield game I think he's been poor. Now that the adrenaline of his initial return has worn off, so has his impact in my opinion. He's been incredibly anonymous in the last 4 games and was particularly poor against the Vale. He was brought in to be the difference maker. But in most of March, he simply wasn't.

Previous Winners:

August: Everyone

September: Shilow Tracey

October: Matus Holicek

November: Joel Tabiner

December: Max Conway

January: Zac Williams

February: Jack Powell

Underrated Player

Lewis Billington

Maybe a touch generous, but I think Billington has been solid in what he's been asked to do, which is play in about 3 different spots. He's been played at RWB, LCB and RCB at various points in the last month and whilst I don't think he's shone, he hasn't been that bad either, Salford aside where he was very poor.

Previous Winners:

August: Jamie Knight-Lebel

September: Zac Williams

October: Fillip Marschall

November: Max Sanders

December: Matus Holicek

January: Ryan Cooney

February: Tommy Lowery

Analysis

Sigh. Where to even start? Well, as I feared, the positive football they played in February disappeared in a puff of smoke. Gone was trying to hold on to the ball, gone was trying to pass it around. And in it's place was the same dreary, defence first, low scoring rubbish we've been served up all season.

The only difference this time was, they weren't able to get results playing it. In the 6 games, they outshot the opposition once. They were out passed by a margin of 253 across the month. That's 40 more passes the opposition manager per game. They had more possession twice.

This is a team that is built to win tight, low scoring games. Yet their last 1-0 win was in January. And before that, it was October. They've 5 games 1-0 and one game 2-1. They clearly can't do what the manager is trying to get them to do.

And where to even start on the management? A group that are seemingly afraid of their own shadow. A group that claim to bleed Crewe red, yet play a style of football which makes Steve Davis' brand look like prime Barcelona. It's dull, it's boring, it's tedious.

God only knows where we go from here.

Looking Ahead

Previous Predictions:

August: 1-2-1(Actual: 1-1-2)

September: 2-1-1(3-0-1)

October: 2-1-2(Actual: 3-2-0)

November: 0-2-1(Actual: 1-3-0)

December: 2-2-1(Actual: 1-3-1)

January: 3-3-0(Actual: 3-2-1)

February: 2-1-2(Actual: 1-2-2)

March: 2-2-2(Actual: 1-3-2)

I was hoping for 8, they got 6. Which isn't a disaster, but isn't enough either, even accounting for the tough opponents they faced. The only issue is, the teams around them have found form and that has seen them drop to 9th. This isn't the month they'll rue not winning more games. It's the months of November, December and February which have cost them.

For the below predictions, I'm going to include the Walsall game, because it would be silly not to.

Optimistic Prediction: 4-1-2(Beat Grimsby, Cheltenham, MK Dons and Tranmere, draw with Walsall, lose to Bradford and Colchester)

Pessimistic Prediction: 1-3-3(Take 5 points from the home games and 1 point from the away games)

Realistic(My) Prediction: 2-3-2(Beat Cheltenham and MK Dons, draw with Grimsby, Tranmere and Walsall, lose to Bradford and Colchester)

It's a mixed bag of teams who are either in the promotion race or safely ensconced in mid-table, with Tranmere probably already safe by the time that game comes around. I feel like these final 7 games will sum up their season. 9 points would take them to 67, which won't be enough for the top 7, but will ensure they finish on their joint most draws. Which would sum up their season perfectly.

Final Word

All season they've hedged their bets. Never conceding enough to lose often, but never scoring enough to win more. They now have 7 games to decide how they want 2024-25 to be remembered. If they let is pass by and not have a proper go, with some real attacking intent, this season will go down as one of their most disappointing and least memorable, in my opinion.

But if they can find the 12-15 points they'll likely need to make the top 7, then they'll not only have wiped away all the frustration and negativity from the last few months, but they'll also be carrying a lot of momentum into the play-offs. Which as Crawley showed last season could be the difference between them getting over the line and not.