It certainly wasn’t easy at Hereford on Saturday, games at this stage of the season rarely are.
With Crewe hanging onto the feint dream of the League Two play-offs and Hereford fighting for their league lives as they teeter on the edge of relegation, the game at Edgar Street was shrouded in tension. It was a scrappy affair, shaded throughout by Hereford who were denied by the resilience of goalkeeper Steve Phillips and some desperate misfortune, the type that usually manifests when you’re stranded to the foot of the table.
Richard O’Kelly, Hereford manager of barely a month, spoke of his pride at the rate of improvement from his Bulls side, who saw enough chances to kill the game off before the heart-breaking moment of Luke Murphy’s winner. Apart from two early chances for Swindon loanee Billy Bodin, Crewe had rarely threatened and Hereford’s Delroy Facey, Richard Peniket and Thomas Barkhuizen were all denied by a tandem of inspired goalkeeping and desperate last-ditch defending. The away side were on the rack until the 78th minute when the ball kindly dropped for Luke Murphy who rounded beat two defenders before his bobbling shot slipped underneath David Cornell, almost regretfully, to sentence Hereford to rock bottom of the football league with their third straight defeat.
Crewe would have got straight back onto the M5 and volleyed it back up to Cheshire with a snatched three points, with the loot also containing a fist full of the clichés “every result matters at this point”, “it’s not the performance, it’s the three points” and the old favourite “we didn’t play well, but it’s the result that counts”. Each one of course, is true and nobody associated with Crewe Alexandra on Saturday night would have been remotely interested in just how badly they played, the fact that the meeting at Hereford would register as a win to Crewe was all that resonated as they remained hot on the heels of Oxford, Gillingham and Cheltenham, who, as if the day couldn’t get any better, all surrendered points as they chase the final two play-off spots.
In total contrast to Hereford, it was Crewe’s fourth win on the spin, a run that stretches to nine games unbeaten and has them entrenched in a battle for the play-off competition that many thought impossible as recently as few weeks ago, let alone back in August as Crewe laid 24th after an atrocious start to the season of four straight defeats. The optimism of the Davis era feels like an entire galaxy away from the frustration and drudgery of the beginning to the campaign under Dario Gradi, which hit a nadir with a spectacularly dreadful 0-3 home loss to Torquay. Davis was given the reigns in the aftermath and somehow, he surveyed the wreckage enough to summon a rise in form that has included 12 wins from 22 matches, a run that has included just four matches. The turnaround, without any hint of hyperbole, has been remarkable and the good times are threatening to return to Gresty Road, but just how has this rookie manager, who had only a spell at non-league Nantwich Town as previous, managed to achieve this reversal?
Well, he entrusted his youth, most importantly, from the start. From Dario’s willingness to prioritise a youth cup tie with North Ferriby so the exciting talent could not start November’s game with Torquay, Davis gave Powell a platform from the very beginning and it was the faith in youth, both Powell and his fellow 17 year old Max Clayton who earned a 2-1 win away at Morecambe in Davis’ first game. Powell has played 23 matches since then, scoring eleven goals, whilst Clayton, used a little more sparingly as a substitute, has made eleven appearances, scoring 3 goals, each one of them a vital winner. It has been an elaboration on Dario’s famous youth policy, whereas Davis is not afraid to utilise his kids when it has really mattered. Of the recent 2-0 victory over league leaders Swindon, it featured nine academy graduates.
Of course, it is a little unfair to tag Gradi with a reluctance to resort to youth, he was the pioneer of it and it was his wonderful insistence of youth that saw echelons of players develop through to the first team throughout his 28 years at the helm. There was a feeling towards the conclusion however, that Dario’s existence served solely as a platform for talent and the result was secondary to the promotion of academy production. Davis has partnered that with an element of pragmatic steel and the Alex are reaping the benefits. He hasn’t been afraid to delve into the loan market for the signings of Jamie Lowry, Greg Pearson, Jordan Brown and most recently Bodin, as Dario excused his own lack of action in that area on a reluctance to block the progression of one of his own. Each signing has contributed and most importantly, Davis has retained the back-bone of the academy Alex that Dario feared would be lost had he resorted to the temporary market.
A resilience that was demonstrably on show against Hereford has been printed into the Crewe Alexandra persona, shining through when reduced to ten men when at home to Promotion challengers Crawley, or the hard-earned win over Di Canio’s Swindon juggernaut and the nervy 1-0 win over Bradford that ensued it. Draws at Port Vale and Rotherham when not playing at all well have been a measure of the mental fortitude now instilled into the side that has made them tough to beat and winning is now the default thought-process of the club, in immense contrast to the resigned melancholy that drew in under Dario. Only one match out of eleven has been lost since Davis’ arrival and it’s that optimism that has made Gresty Road such a fearsome place. Optimism is now the buzzword and the players are feeding off it.
Only seven games remain and Crewe lie four points off the top seven and the overriding feeling is that with this run of form, points continue to be gobbled up to achieve that holy grail. 18th place Northampton lie in wait on Saturday before a trip to 4th placed Crawley on Good Friday. Crewe fans will hope it is indeed a Good Friday as they continue with their assault on the top seven that was out of the question under the stewardship of Dario Gradi, the importance is to simply, keep winning games and under Davis, that is proving not to be a problem.
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