Tims 92

Crewe Alexandra

Gresty Road

Ground No. 58

Visited - Saturday 5th March 2005
Result - Crewe Alexandra 1-4 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Competition - Coca-Cola Championship
Attendance - 8212

In the week leading up to this match there had been snow and heavy rain in the midlands, so there was some doubt as to whether the game would even go ahead, so I'd decided to leave it until as late as possible to make the journey up to Crewe.

Fortunately on the morning of the game, the weather hadn’t been too bad, so most of the snow had cleared up, and after arriving into Crewe at 1:30pm, I was relieved to see that the match was definitely on. Before the game I had a quick walk around the town before coming back and going around the ground taking pictures.

From the outside its probably the least imposing ground in the Championship, with 3 sides being fairly small and basic, and only the new Air Products Stand standing out from its surroundings, towering above the rest of the stadium, and looking particularly impressive. One thing about the exterior that I liked was the tightly packed terrace streets surrounding the ground, it is a refreshing change to see a ground in a traditional setting, as opposed to looking anonymous on a retail estate, which seems to becoming more common, with even some of the older grounds having these type of developments placed next to them now.

After paying a quick visit to the club shop I went into the ground at about 2:30pm. Taking a few pictures whilst in there, unfortunately it was fairly full by that time, so didn’t get many of the ground empty, and being on the side of the pitch didn’t exactly give me the best angle either, but got a few, and was quite impressed by the ground. The stand we were in was the BMW Bluebell Stand, which was showing its age a bit in terms of facilities, and also had a few pillars, but was good enough, opposite was the huge Air Products Stand standing much taller than the rest of the ground, and at the two ends were similar looking stands with the home fans to our right in the Advance Personnel Stand, and another section of Wolves fans to our left filling up the Charles Audi Stand.

After finding my seat the match soon started, and it wasn’t good news when on 9 minutes Carl Cort gave away a stupid penalty which Crewe converted with ease. Cort soon made up for his error though when two minutes later he equalised after a good cross from Seol. On 35 minutes a burst into the box, and what looked like a dive by Paul Ince won us a penalty, which Kenny Miller confidently put away to give us the lead and right on half time, Cort got his second and our third to give us a convincing lead going into the break.

The second half wasn’t especially brilliant, with Crewe doing most of the work, yet us looking the most dangerous. In the 59th minute, Miller got his second to put the game beyond the home side, and that finished it really. There were no other chances of note and so the game finished 4-1 to Wolves.

After leaving the ground, it was a short walk back to the station before catching the train back, arriving home for the first time in months whilst it was still light!

Throughout the game there had been a good atmosphere from the away fans, helped by the low roof, which gave good acoustics, although the home fans, despite having a drum in their end didn’t really produce much noise. As expected there was no trouble, despite a fairly heavy police/steward presence.

Overall it was quite a good trip, obviously its not the best ground in the world, but it’s a nice place to visit, and one I’ll no doubt enjoy going back to.