Saturday 11th August the Capital One cup started in Round 1 and the draw threw up the perfect chance to do 2 new league grounds...well actually 'old' grounds.
My decision was Crewe Alexandra vs. Hartlepool
United on the Saturday followed by Blackpool vs. Morecambe on the Sunday and
with my wife's cousin living in Great Sankey near Warrington we had our bed for
the night sorted.
Me and the wife left home at 10am for the
drive to Crewe, which I anticipated, would take around 3 hours. After
stopping for lunch at Corley Services I pulled up near Crewe station at
1.45pm and said goodbye to the wife who then took the car up to Warrington
to spend sometime with her cousin.
I walked over to the Express to catch the 2nd half
of Rangers first game in Div 3. A disappointing 2-2 draw is not the ideal
start to life in the lowest tier of Scottish football, but it's a long season
so we will see how this pans out.
I had been to both Gresty and Bloomfield Roads as a
kid on a summer holiday but had never seen games at either ground so today was
the first tick of these two that had eluded me since childhood. Being excited
to visit The Alexandra Stadium I queued to get my ticket for the main stand,
all tickets were priced at £15.00 for adults so after a look in the club shop I
headed inside the ground.
Now I know the ground has had a complete overall
since I as last here (same as Bloomfield Road) but I really like Gresty Road.
The Air Products Main Stand is a whopper and dominates the local landscape as
well as holding half of the grounds capacity. Small stands running the length
of the pitch behind each goal and the brilliant named Ice Cream Van stand is
opposite and houses the away fans. There were 2 blocks of 'Monkey Hangers' in
attendance and in bright sunshine the game started.
Crewe's young team took League 2 by storm last
season but they had to earn promotion by way of a play-off final victory at
Wembley over Cheltenham Town. Hartlepool however sent the previous season in
League 1 and this would be the first of at least 3 meetings between the 2 sides
this season.
The pace and skilful passing from the home side
started to show and within 7 minutes they had the first goal of the game as AJ
Leitch-Smith lifted the ball into the roof of the net beyond Flinders in the
'Pool goal. On 13 Minutes it was 2-0 as Mathias Pogba teed up Max Clayton and
as Crewe swept forward the 3rd and 4th goals arrived before half time courtesy
of Pogba and Clayton. Byron Moore was dominating the game down the right wing
and even though Hartlepool had various chances in front of goal through the big
target man Steve Howard they left the field well and truly beaten with another
45 minutes still to play.
The 2nd period started with Hartlepool still trying
to force a goal to kick-start a comeback but it just would not come. Their
manager Neale Cooper was obviously not impressed, as he made no substitutions meaning that all 11 starting plays saw out the full 90 minutes. A few minutes
from the end of the game Crewe got their well deserved 5th when Pogba swept
home at the far post. 5-0 as the whistle blew and a great result for the first competitive
game of the new season, albeit the first round of the Capital One Cup.
On the way back to the station I came across the
Crewe Alexandra programme shop which I had walked straight past on the way to
the ground...WOW...as I only had 20 minutes to my train departed I had a quick
look round and purchased a few £1.00 bundles.
The Virgin train from London arrived promptly to
carry me the 18 minute journey to Warrington Bank Quay, from where I was
collected by my wife and her cousin and taken off to see family in the area
before settling in for the evening.
The following day I will be off to another Capital
One cup game up at the revamped Bloomfield Road, Blackpool.
Til the next time....
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