The Moose is having his best spell with the club, what the hell did Spud do with him at Wycombe, but does look a little out of place on the left at times, however Christophe and Macca must continue in the centre, the strength and skill of both of those two at times is great to watch.
Certainly Theo Robinson enjoyed getting his first goal for the club against Tranmere but now looks to the club continuing against Crewe: "We're doing better again now and want to keep it going. We had two weeks off because of the weather which was frustrating but the games are coming thick and fast now. That's what you want as a footballer though and next up is Crewe Tuesday night. They aren't a bad team but we want to go out there and make it three wins in a row to get closer to the teams just above us in the top half of the table."
Tilson agreed: "The league table will count for nothing because Crewe are a good side and they are desperate for points. We will have to work hard for the points but we want to keep this run we are on going. Yeovil have shown what is possible if you keep on getting victories because they've won four in a row to get up the table and we want to do the same."
As long as you don't follow their manager out of the door Tills!
| 20 | Swindon Town | 28 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 22 | 26 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 18 | 22 | 6 | 11 | 11 | 40 | 48 | 29 | -8 | ||||
| 21 | Brighton & Hove Albion | 29 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 19 | 28 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 14 | 17 | 6 | 10 | 13 | 33 | 45 | 28 | -12 | ||||
| 22 | Hereford United | 28 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 17 | 13 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 10 | 32 | 6 | 6 | 16 | 27 | 45 | 24 | -18 | ||||
| 23 | Crewe Alexandra | 28 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 18 | 24 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 16 | 36 | 6 | 4 | 18 | 34 | 60 | 22 | -26 | ||||
| 24 | Cheltenham Town | 28 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 23 | 31 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 13 | 34 | 5 | 6 | 17 | 36 | 65 | 21 | -29 | ||||
Crewe's defeat leaves them seven points adrift of safety ahead of tomorrow's rearranged trip to Southend, where Thordarson might fall back on some of his fringe set: "It is a long way to travel and there are players who we left back home at the weekend who might be fresh and sharp.
Alex assistant-manager Neil Baker added: "We did enough to at least get something out of the Orient game. But we can't feel sorry for ourselves as there is no time. We've got to go again at Southend."
Ex-Blue shot stopper Steve Collis was on the bench for Saturday's 1-0 defeat at the Borient where a goal disallowed for off-side stopped the Railwaymen gaining a valuable point.
From the www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk site the Crewe players from that game and player markings:
RUDDY: Might have done better with the goal as he was beaten at his near post, but solid otherwise 6
BRAYFORD: Decent performance considering he was up against the tricky Demetriou (!) 7
JONES: Produced some good deliveries with his corners and a first-half free-kick was a whisker from being touched in at the far post 7
LAWRENCE: Good performance, especially considering it came after his long-haul flight back from international duty 6
BROOMES: Looked shaky at times and allowed a couple of balls to slip past him to Morgan 5
MILLER: Started quite brightly and should have scored with an early header, but then faded from view on his recall to the starting eleven 5
BAUDET: Deployed in a defensive midfield role, but was then replaced for the more attack-minded Carrington after an hour 6
WOODARDS: He was all right first half, but in the second faded away and was guilty of a poor back pass to let Morgan in 5
GRANT: Back on the left, the winger showed skill in flashes, but he never really got on top of right-back Purches 6
POPE: The striker worked hard with little effect after first-half effort disallowed 6
DONALDSON: He went close in the first half and threatened to unlock the Os at times, but nowhere near a a consistent enough threat 6
SUBSTITUTES;
CARRINGTON (for Baudet, 61): Came on to try to advance things and did go close with a header 6
MOORE (for Pope, 75): Skied difficult late chance 6
ZOLA (for Woodards, 82): Joined in when Crewe went three up front at the end.
Not used: Abbey, Collis.
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REF
The man in the middle is Graham Scott from Abingdon in Oxfordshire.
FIXTURES
Tuesday, 17 February 2009; (all 19.45 kick-off): Bristol Rovers v Yeovil, Hartlepool v Leicester, Hereford v Leeds, Millwall v Swindon, Stockport v Cheltenham, Tranmere v Peterborough.
BET
Southend (3/4) Draw (13/5) Crewe (4)
For all the footy odds go here: www.oddschecker.com/football/english/league-one.
HISTORY
Nicknamed The Railwaymen due to the town's links with the railway industry, the club was formed in 1877 and reputedly named after Princess Alexandra. Some suggest that the decision to form the club was actually taken in a pub named after the Princess and the club was named after the pub which is a far better story.
Crewe were one of the founding members of Division 2 in 1892, having previously been members of the Football Alliance, but became a non-league side after only five seasons. The following year the club managed to sign all their players as professionals. They rejoined the Football League in the 1920s, during which time a new record of 15,102 packed into Gresty Road to watch Crewe entertain local rivals Stoke City. The Potters won the game 2-0. Crewe earned their first honours by winning the Welsh Cup in 1936 and 1937, before being barred from entering (not least since they were not in Wales). In 1936, Herbert Swindells scored his 100th League goal for Crewe Alexandra. He would go on to score a record 126 goals for the club - a record that still stands today.
In June 1983, Crewe appointed Milan-born Dario Gradi as manager. At that time, Crewe had again just avoided being voted out of the Football League. Gradi quickly gained a reputation for developing young talent, Gradi let Steve Walters become the youngest ever player to pull on a Crewe shirt: aged just 16 years and 119 days he played against Peterborough United on 6 May. Gradi's efforts paid off in 1989 when Crewe won promotion to the Third Division. They went back down two years later, but were promoted again in 1994. In the same year, Neil Lennon became the first Crewe Alexandra player to gain an International cap for 60 years when he was selected to play for Northern Ireland against Mexico. Gradi then led his charges to the unprecedented height of Division One in 1997, after victory over Brentford in the Division Two playoff final, and kept his team there until 2002, despite a club income on which many more lowly clubs could not survive.
After one season in the Division Two the club were promoted back to Division One at the end of the 2002-03 season, having finished in second place; the first time the club had finished in the top two of any division.
Although managing to retain their place in the renamed Championship in the 2003-04 season, at the start of the 2004-05 season they were rated one of the likeliest teams to be relegated. In the event, they put in a good showing in the first half of the season, but after selling Dean Ashton to Norwich City for a record £3 million in the January 2005 transfer window, Crewe failed to win any more games until the final match of the season, when they defeated Coventry City 2-1 and narrowly escaped relegation on goal difference, Crewe having a GD of -20 and Gillingham -21.
The following year they were not so fortunate. Despite a good run towards the end of the season, they were relegated to League 1 at the end of the 2005-06 season.
Crewe were named the 'Most Admired Club' in the 2006 Football League Awards, sponsored by The League Paper and FourFourTwo Magazine.
As of the summer of 2007, Gradi was the longest serving manager in English league football; he celebrated his 1,000th game in charge of Crewe on 20 November 2001 - an away fixture at Carrow Road, the home of Norwich City F.C., and completed 24 years in sole charge of the club, although assistant manager Neil Baker took temporary charge between 22 September and 17 October 2003 while Gradi underwent heart surgery. Crewe only managed one point while Baker was in charge.
During Gradi's control, the club gained a strong reputation for its youth policy, and gained official status as an FA Youth Academy. By concentrating on developing its own players the club remained profitable (a rare thing in lower division football at the time) by selling them on after they have gained experience with Crewe. The Academy is known to stress technical excellence, which accords with Gradi's aim to have his sides play attractive, passing football.
Players who passed through the ranks at Crewe include the England international players Geoff Thomas, David Platt and Rob Jones, Welshman Robbie Savage, and Northern Ireland internationals Neil Lennon and Steve Jones (Platt was the most successful, totalling more than £20 million in transfers and captaining the England team). All these were youngsters signed from other clubs, but Gradi also had considerable success in nurturing Crewe's own trainees - notably full England internationals Danny Murphy and Seth Johnson, under-21 England international Dean Ashton and Wales international David Vaughan.
On 20 April 2007 Crewe Alexandra announced that, as of 1 July 2007, Gradi would take up a new role as the club's Technical Director whilst gradually allowing newly appointed first-team coach Steve Holland control of the team.
Holland's first season in this role, 2007-08, was a disappointment as they narrowly avoided relegation, finishing in 20th place with a mere 50 points.
Summer transfers for Crewe before the 2008/09 season was bringing in goalkeepers such as former Blues No.2 Steve Collis and strikers such as Calvin Zola. They also let Ben Williams go to Carlisle United F.C. and sold fan favourite Nicky Maynard to Bristol City F.C. for the buying teams club record fee of £2.25 million.
Following pressure from fans the board relieved Steve Holland of his duties as first team coach. This left the position of manager open, and with a league game approaching, the club took the opportunity to re-appoint Gradi as caretaker manager until a new manager was found. Gradi's first game back in charge was a 3-0 defeat at home to local rivals Stockport County. On 24 December 2008 the Icelandic former manager of local rivals Stoke City, Gudjon Thordarson, was appointed as Holland's successor, though Gradi remained in charge of the team for a further six days - and he oversaw the club's first away win of the season, 4-1 at Hartlepool. Thordarson's first game in charge was a 2-2 draw away at Millwall in the FA Cup 3rd round, while Gradi resumed his role of Technical Director.
(Thanks to the all the usual suspects for their help with this article.)