da bwin：
da bwin： So, this is it then, with three games left this is the League Two equivalent of what Sir Alex Ferguson so elegantly refers to in the distant chasm of the Premier League as “squeaky-bum time” and for those chasing the play-offs, it almost definitely is.
With Swindon Town having all but secured promotion to League One with four games remaining, the next five places seemed to have been secured in terms of at least a play-off position, with Cheltenham Town enjoying a four point cushion over the straight duel between Oxford United and Crewe Alexandra, level on points but separated by a goal difference of nine, going into the final stages of the season.
Crewe host Cheltenham this weekend in what promises to be the biggest game the Alexandra stadium has seen for a long time, with the Railwaymen’s play-off ambitions hanging on the line against the side they can still chase down into sixth place.
One eye will be on Oxford’s fortunes at Plymouth but it is now time for Steve Davis’ team to avoid relying on others after a run of three draws disrupted by the Bank Holiday Monday victory over Bristol Rovers. The thirteen game unbeaten run is still intact, just barely, but now is the perfect opportunity to prove the win over Bristol was not an anomaly as the wheels start grind to a disappointing halt this close to the end, to try and set up a mouth-watering climax in the final two games as the Robins get drawn into a tense battle with Crewe and Oxford for a cherished top seven finish with defeat in South Cheshire.
It will also provide the perfect opportunity for Crewe to cancel out a rather lacklustre performance at Macclesfield last Saturday which saw two points dropped to the relegation threatened Silkmen. Again the defensive naivety away from home was evident as Harry Davis followed Lee Bell’s example at Crawley in conceding a penalty, dispatched tentatively by Lewis Chalmers before a composed brace from Nick Powell, the second a superb fleet-footed run and finish to boost his ever-growing stock, had the away terrace bellowing shouts of “Wembley” as we dared to dream. Then with ten minutes to go, Ashley Westwood failed to cut out a long ball from the back and Colin Daniel fired a cross past Steve Phillips to rescue a point for Brian Horton’s men.
Once more the lack of early substitutions were on the agenda, as was the rudimentary slump in the second half of matches that invite pressure but the overbearing emotion was one of disbelief in how Billy Bodin, the form of whom the subject of increasing concern amongst Alex fans, conspired to hit the bar when faced with a golden opportunity to send Crewe back down the A536 with all three vital points. However, it was not to be and victory would have flattered a Crewe team which rode its luck in stages. Smart phones and radios were turned in the direction of Oxford’s 0-0 stalemate with Gillingham and there was a sense of satisfaction to be taken from the day’s events; it was as you were in the play-off battle between the two with more importance heaped on the meeting with Cheltenham on Saturday 21st.
The horrendous run of form at the beginning of the season however has been consigned to the history books at Crewe, with this new resilient outfit in possession of the longest current unbeaten run in Britain being the order of the day, and any sense of context will be thrown out of the window with an over-riding feeling of disappointment if Steve Davis’ six month reign sees his team miss out on the top seven by the closest of all margins. It is a project well in its infancy and the case of walk before running should be applicable here, but the ambition and optimism rendered by Davis’ drive and gates of 4,500 are impossible not to get carried away with. It is only 27 matches since Dario Gradi’s final game in charge of this team, the horror-show of a 0-3 reversal at home to Torquay, and the Davis regime has seen 48 points taken in that time, a run of 13 wins and remarkably just four defeats, to see the Alex fourth in the table ran since that date. No emphasis can give justification for just how for this Crewe have come since Rene Howe and Billy Bodin, then as a Torquay player, ripped a shockingly bad Crewe team open on that cold November afternoon at Gresty Road, it has been light-years without any sense of hyperbole.
Contrast that then with Gradi’s charge that saw just six wins from the opening 17 games, a run of a massive ten defeats, and it can be seen quite what a turn-around this has been. There is no need for the immediacy of gaining promotion as soon as this year, a clear structure has been put in place with the refreshing ideas of the Neil Baker and Steve Davis axis, fired by the young talent churned out on a consistent basis by the famed academy system so it all bodes well for the future. The soft centre has gone, the expansive football which has seen plaudits from as recently as Steve Evans and Mark McGhee in opposition dugouts has been supplemented by a new steel, that has seen Crewe ship just 33 goals in those 27 matches under Davis, a stat that will marvel any Crewe fan before it is accounted the 26 that were conceded in the 17 matches under Dario’s stewardship at the start.
New contracts have been sorted for Harry Davis, Adam Dugdale, David Artell and Ajay Leitch-Smith as well as packages being offered to the majority of the squad to sign up to this new Crewe era whatever league the club will be in come August. The future is on the agenda, just like it always has with Crewe, but there is a genuine feeling now that it may come hand in hand with success. It’s not just the immediacy of the games with Cheltenham, Torquay and Aldershot which will define whether the Alex can be given a shot at the play-off lottery to cap what has been a superb season for the club; it is about the summer and beyond. Whatever happens in the next fortnight, it has been just that for a transitional Crewe, a superb season.
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