Crewe 1 County 1
A point apiece in the first Cheshire derby at Gresty Road since the day we lost our Football League place
Wednesday 1 February 2023
Dear County fans, Stopfordians, and anyone else joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Wednesday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore, as we head into February. Danny Bergara always said we needed 52 points by the end of this month if we had serious play-off aspirations. That’s doable, just about: beat Tranmere, Harrogate, Crawley and Rochdale (three of those are in the bottom five), draw at Barrow, and we could afford a defeat against Stevenage. I think we all agree we need to improve on January’s record, however, with just 5 points collected from a possible 15. The last of those points came from the Cheshire derby at Crewe yesterday, and today’s main feature is all the reaction from Gresty Road with Vital Crewe editor Steve Johnson and The Beavers’ Jack Street.
Back in November, many readers will have heard the devastating news regarding a lifelong County fan whose wife has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. A fundraising event, to raise money for ongoing treatment as well as supporting a young family, has been organised for this Saturday at Our Lady’s in Stockport. There’s now just 13 tickets remaining. Let’s get these sold over the next couple of days if we can. Contact details are in the image below.
Finally, today’s edition of The Scarf My Father Wore is sponsored by LG Plastering, one of Stockport’s newest businesses. A big thank you to Louie, who’s also a huge County fan. If you require any plastering services this month, Louie’s your man.
Des Junior
Yesterday’s match in one word:
Steve - Cagey.
Jack - Scratchy.
Pre-match thoughts:
Steve - I was hoping for a better performance than we managed up at your place on Boxing Day (low bar I know) but still felt that you would be the more likely team to win.
Jack - I was hoping for us to get back into some form, and do the double over our Cheshire neighbours. The way we'd commanded the game on Boxing Day, I was hoping we'd get back to that. But really I was just looking forward to a good old fashioned County trip to Crewe, it's been too long.
Post-match thoughts:
Steve - Happy with the point to be honest, though with a bit of luck we could have picked up all three if we’d got on the end of one of the crosses we put in late in the game.
Jack - Frustrated by our performance. We didn't get started properly at all, and had no fluency around our play. We never got the ball under control properly - the surface didn't help but it was the same for both teams. We looked too negative at times, opting to play backwards and then just lump it forward without any real aim. The one bit of quality football led to our goal; why the players couldn't muster up more like that I can't quite work out.
Verdict on Crewe:
Steve - Quite happy with our performance, restricted you to a limited number of chances and happy to see that we didn't run out of legs towards the end as we hadn't played since the 14th.
Jack - Crewe looked a lot better than they did on Boxing Day. They seemed up for the challenge and never let us settle on the ball. I was impressed by how much they pressed us, got a foot in at key times, and worked really hard to keep themselves in the game. They look dangerous at set pieces too - the quality of delivery on a number of occasions was very good.
Verdict on County:
Steve - I was expecting a little more going off the meeting at Edgeley Park.
Jack - I felt County were poor value on the night. We just seem to be still in a January lull and we need to snap out of it. OK, we've been missing a few key players but we should have enough depth in the squad to win these kind of games. I can't figure out why we keep putting Camps in midfield and moving our best player (Collar) out wide. The goal came from Collar getting involved in the middle of the park and working a great ball through to Wootton. FFS, keep Collar in the middle where he does the damage!
Top Railwayman:
Steve - Between the centre-backs for me; probably goalscorer O'Riordan as McDonald was caught out a little for the County equaliser.
Jack - I'd probably go for Griffiths for Crewe. I think their midfield really didn't let us get on top at all during the game and he was probably the pick of that midfield bunch.
Top Hatter:
Steve - Knoyle was alright, although I felt that his delivery wasn't great given that we stood off him more than I would have liked.
Jack - No real standout performance, it was more key moments: Collar for the pass, Wootton for the goal. Collar wasn't as involved as I would have liked (see above) so I'll go for Wootton, it was a quality finish and he worked his socks off for the whole game, feeding off the meagre scraps which we served up for him.
Atmosphere:
Steve - Sat in the Main Stand near the Railway End where it was quiet as normal. Both the away fans in the stand opposite us and the Gresty Road End were in decent voice at points throughout the game.
Jack - Atmosphere was good but there was a lot of frustration around me at how we played. Good singing throughout though and really livened up when our goal went in - it was a good time to get that, early in the second half, because if we'd have gone on much longer I could have sensed the frustration growing. Gresty Road is Gresty Road, isn't it? I was a bit disappointed with their fans. I actually missed their goal and their cheer was really quite quiet - I thought they were appealing for a foul or something, and I noticed the ball was in the back of the bleeding net! That might have been because I was right down in the corner, furthest away from the Crewe fans, but they did seem quiet to me.
Hopes for the rest of the season:
Steve - Similar to how I was in the summer, to avoid getting dragged into the relegation scrap. We’re 10 points clear of the drop zone at the minute but quite often teams at the bottom (except for us last season in League One) start winning towards the end of the season.
Jack - We really need to snap out of this lull. At best we will make the play-offs, but we need to get a run going. To go up automatically would need a run like we had last season, and I don't think we've quite got the quality for that.
The British Library receives a copy of every single book published in the UK. In the same fashion, Des Junior believes a detailed record of every County game should be preserved for the history books. So here’s the full story of our 1-1 draw at Crewe Alexandra on Tuesday 31 January 2023, as told from his three County-related WhatsApp groups…
9.59am: It’s so long since I have been to Gresty Road I can't remember where I used to park… or was it tie up the horses?
11.50am: Parkopedia (good app by the way) tells me someone is renting out their drive on Dario Gradi Drive.
11.52am: Don’t ask what is rented on Dario Gradi Drive…
6.47pm: Midfield three of Camps, Collar and Croasdale then. Time for Camps to show his worth.
7.57pm: Poor start here. Step up required.
8.30pm: 1-0 down. Right on half-time. Bollocks.
8.34pm: So frustrating that. Decent half after a shaky start but inexcusable defending for the opener. Not sure we’re going to get two in reply.
8.52pm: 1-1.
8.53pm: Oh look, we play some football and we score. More of that please.
9.41pm: Probably fair on balance, but frustrating. They were there for the taking in the second half and we just lacked a bit of tenacity to seize the game by the scruff of the neck.
9.42pm: Four points off Crewe. We’d take that wouldn’t we?
9.43pm: That’s at least two too few.
How was your Tuesday night in Crewe? Are we good enough to push for the play-offs? And did you bump into any of the scary Crewe Yoof on the mean streets of Cheshire before or after the game? Click on the button to leave your comments.
Support a County fan who’s just launched his new business
County fans are a fantastic bunch, always supporting new businesses launched by Hatters. Andy Turner always sells out his selection of Christmas trees each year, Bask is packed every weekend, Stockport Gin have been able to progress to opening their own premises. Let’s see if we can show a little love to another County fan who’s started his own business this month. Louie’s a fellow Hatter who runs LG Plastering, and as a new business, they’re offering big discounts this month, so it’s definitely worth getting in touch.
Click here for contact details.
A Tuesday night in Crewe
Never mind Google or Yell.com, we’ve got you covered
STOP! That got your attention, didn’t it? Just a quick one… I’d hazard a guess that at some point in February, all of our readers will use Google or Yell.com at some point looking for a particular product or service. But before you do, please have a quick look at our own directory to see if we have what you’re looking for. A number of great businesses support The Scarf My Father Wore, allowing us to publish great content every day, so let’s send a few enquiries their way in return.
Click here to have a look at all the businesses in our directory.
On this day in 2020
Stockport County 0 Dover Athletic 2. For any County fans leaving Gresty Road dejected last night, we really have come a long way.
Here’s something you should definitely do in February
Buy tickets for The County Comedy Quiz at Bask!
The Scarf My Father Wore editor, Des Junior, absolutely loves a County quiz. He’s alright at compiling County quizzes as well. Rightly or wrongly, he also fancies himself as a bit of a comedian. On that note, The Scarf My Father Wore are delighted to team up with Bask to bring you The Comedy County Quiz. It’s a proper County quiz, with some fantastic prizes on offer, but our aim is to crack you up with some of the questions along the way.
We’ve also got special guest Paul Jones joining us. The former County defender, and Bolton Wanderers legend, will be speaking on the night, as well as handing out the prizes to the winners!
Click here for our full list of things you should definitely do in February!