Crewe v County (Pre-season)

A serious pre-season training day for both the team and the fans, as our first early start of the pre-season gets underway. A good day out, and a good performance overall from County. Report by Scarf

Spot...	The Crewe...	Fan(s) ????

As always, click on the pictures for bigger versions

Pre-season training. For us as well as the players. The opportunity of a trip to see County away at Crewe a week before the season started represented a great opportunity to get back into the swing of things in terms of away days, and, if nothing else, to prepare our livers for the carnage that is inevitably going to ensue over the next nine months. Whilst this game carried the title ‘friendly’, it being Crewe the term was inevitably something of a misnomer – games against the trainspotters from South Cheshire have always been, err, ‘keenly fought’ over the years, shall we say, and I’m not just talking about on the field, either! Summer warm-up though it may be, therefore, we dearly wanted the team to perform well in this game. Whilst not quite having the tension of a real league game, it was as near to the real thing as its possible to get before the genuine article beings next week.

It was thus with eager anticipation that the eight of us – Pete Towey, Phil Robbie, Lancs, Mart, Caz, Andy, Sliding Billy and I – walked (nay, marched) down to Stockport station in order to catch the 10.13 to Crewe. Determined to make the most of our first day out of the season, the day got off to a great start when we discovered that, if we bought tickets in pairs, we could get a discount. Result! We were heartened to see a good number of County fans already at the station when we arrived, including Imposter alongside Des Hinks Jr and his crowd. Having settled down for the 40 minute journey (this train being one of those that stopped at every little hovel between Stockport and Crewe), the more, err, ‘dedicated’ amongst us decided it was high time to crack open the bottles and cans they had bought for the journey. For some, the prospect of having to wait until opening time in Crewe was simply too dark a thought to contemplate! Billy disappeared off to the other end of the carriage to procure an orange WKD. About ten minutes later he stumbled back and virtually fell into his seat. He’d clearly been out of practice… Meanwhile, we spotted a bloke with a Man United shirt at one of the platforms and waited, breath held, to see whether he would get on anywhere near where Lancs was sat, expectant at the torrent of abuse that would inevitably follow. Fortunately for said passenger, he got on at a different part of the train. Probably for the best, really…

Hmm... what a bunch!	Pub	Crewe Score

The pub we usually occupy in Crewe (I forget its name) was closed, so, after a brief sojourn in a none-too-pretty pub where there were no seats and the ‘beer-garden’ was little more than a table next to a drain, we ended up in a huge Wetherspoons-type place with the biggest beer garden I have ever seen. It had a proper lawn and everything! In fact, it seemed to me more like a beer park than a beer garden! It was by now around 12.30, the sun was shining, we were sat outside with our drinks and everything seemed right with the world. It was very idyllic – dare I say, civilised (not a word you hear associated with football fans very often), even! The anxieties of the season had not yet begun, we were on our first day out of the season, sitting with friends and enjoying the sun. Life does not get much better than this. Later, we moved on to the Brunswick, the traditional pre-match County pub, where there was an altogether more boisterous atmosphere, with much singing about, amongst other things, the man from Uruguay, Danny Bergara. Many things have been said here and elsewhere about Danny since his death last week, and all the words and songs in his honour are richly deserved. Let’s hope we can have a season befitting to the legacy of one of the greatest men to walk through the doors of Edgeley Park.

Meanwhile, Martin was running round the Brunswick like an excited child, having just won £40 in the fruit machine. Mart considers himself something of a pro at the fruties these days, and it is true that his total winnings of £70 from Saturday make very impressive reading indeed. As far as I am concerned, however, his winnings mean only one thing – it’s his round!

Soon enough, it was time to sup up and go to the ground. It was hard to know how many County fans were there – there were a lot of fans, but it was a big stand we were in and there were plenty empty spaces. What is more certain is the low level of the Crewe support; indeed, Lancs claimed afterwards to have counted 147 Crewe fans altogether! Looking at how empty their stands were, he is probably not far off the mark. It certainly seemed like the vast majority of the attendance were County, anyway. The first half was fairly uneventful, and was typical pre-season fayre. Crewe took the lead with what seemed a dubious penalty when Legzdins was adjudged to have brought down their striker. We equalised with what seemed an even dodgier penalty after McNeil was apparently tugged back by their defender. Our equaliser was met by the majority with half-hearted cheers – whilst it’s Crewe, it’s still only pre-season, after all. No need for a full-scale goal mental quite yet. Imposter, however, had other ideas. Leaping into the air, taking off his t-shirt and waving it around his head, you would’ve thought we had just scored the winner in a crucial promotion game. Start the season as you mean to go on, I suppose…

Proudlock scores	Fans celebraet	Les crushes his unmentionables

One person who had definitely decided to started the season with a bang was Phil Robbie. Soon after half-time, we noticed that Phil was no longer sitting in front of us. Upon further investigation, we discovered that he had, in fact, been thrown out after an argument with a steward and was now in a pub across the road. Phil has something of a history with stewards at various grounds, and it is something of a running joke regarding which ground he will be thrown out of first. Even for him, however, a pre-season game must represent something of a record! Furthermore, when asked about this later on, Phil actually claims to have ‘thrown himself out,’ after having called said steward ‘a failed lollipop man.’ Granted, the first half may not have been the greatest game of football in the world, but throwing oneself out appears to be a slightly extreme measure to me!

On the pitch, County had begun the second half with a renewed sense of purpose and quickly set about slicing through the Crewe defence at every opportunity. McNeil and Proudlock were replaced by Elding and Dickinson, and the latter pair caused the home side all sorts of problems and really seemed to ‘gel’ together well as a partnership. In midfield, Taylor and Dicker, who had come on as sub for the injured Briggs in the first half, were running the midfield, and for almost the entire half, County dominated the game and, frankly outclassed a very sluggish Crewe side who struggled to string two passes together at times. The longer we pressed forward without scoring, however, the more obvious what was going to happen became to us all. We have all watched football, and especially County, long enough now to realise that, if you don’t convert possession into goals, you are going to get done at the other end. With County, it is usually in the most frustrating of fashions, too. So it proved again here. In the last five minutes, Crewe broke away twice to fire past sub keeper Adamson. It was difficult to tell from where I was sat whether Adamson was at fault for either finish; he was certainly left exposed as County pushed on for another goal on both occasions. Given he had hardly anything to do in the half apart from fishing the ball out the net twice, it is difficult to be able to pass comment on him at this stage. We shall find out whether he is the answer to our long-running goalkeeping problems soon enough once the season starts for real, I suspect.

The game as a whole reminded me of the opening game of last season at home to Hereford, where County were by far the better side but failed to score and were punished as a result. Hopefully we have this out of our system now and, lesson learned, we can combine some of the lovely passing football we saw in the second half – some of the best I have seen from a County side for a long while, I must add – with a bit more ruthlessness at the end, then we will easily be a match for any side in this division. Yes, the final score was disappointing, but for a large part of the game we effectively played a team in the division above off the park. If I were a Crewe fan I would be a lot more worried than I am as a County fan. Performances matter far more than results in pre-season, and for the most part we performed very well.

The County fans were as such in a jubilant mood after the game, despite the fact we’d lost. We knew we had played well and so the train home was filled with song and laughter as we made our way back to Stockport. This was all too much for a couple of Crewe youth teamers who happened to be on the same train as us, however. Dressed in Crewe shirts, the young players were too scared to get off at Stockport, where they lived, and instead went on to Manchester, despite assurances from Martin and others that nothing would happen to them. Perhaps, playing at Crewe, they just aren’t used to the sound of a crowd, I don’t know…

County Fans	More County Fans	It all gets a bit much for Les...

It was finally back to the Chunky for another few hours of drink, laughter and nonsense. The cheeky vimto made an appearance, and when Pete started discussing God and philosophy before inevitably nodding off for the millionth time that evening, it was decided by all that it was probably time to go home. A very enjoyable day out and a good performance by County, even if the result wasn’t quite what we wanted. If this is the warm-up, bring on the real thing!