Gresty Road

Thursday, 10 August 2023

Crewe Alexandra 2-2 Mansfield Town

Credit: Tom McAtee / Alamy Stock Photo

Sunday, 6 May 2012

Crewe Alexandra 0-0 Accrington Stanley

Aerial shot of Gresty Road (Bing Maps)

Programme - £1.50 reduced from £2.50 (Original programme from the postponed game and a sleeve covering the programme with latest news and squads)

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 7/10

Ease of getting there : 8/10

Atmosphere : 4/10

Programme : 2/10 (Simply due to the programme being out of date)

View of Action : 9/10

Quality of the game : 7/10

The "football" feeling : 8/10

Chances of coming here for a random game : 5/10

Legroom : 10/10

Surrounding area : 5/10

Overall : 65/100

Gresty Road from the Railway Station

'Gresty Rd'

'Welcome to Crewe Alexandra...before chaos at the ticket office!'

Air Products stand

Gresty road end

Blue Bells BMW stand

Air Products stand

Gresty road end

Blue Bells BMW stand

Railway end

Blue Bells BMW stand

The Accrington Stanley supporters making use of the 1,680 capacity!

Gresty road end

Railway end

Panoramic shot of Gresty road

Crewe Alexandra 2-2 Mansfield Town

Glorious weather normally appears when the football season starts, well it might shine on the Premier League next week but atrocious driving conditions a plenty for fans travelling for the opening EFL games of the 2023/24 season. Rain throughout most of the day, Crewe maybe at its best in overcast rainy conditions! I met a work colleague at Crewe Railway Station, he lives in Cheshire and was once in Crewe’s academy as a goalkeeper. He talks very highly of former manager Dario Gradi and before the game we had a drink in the Railwayman’s Club, which is situated behind what is now the away end at Gresty Road, or to give it its new name, the Mornflake Stadium. Unbelievable! We sat in the large Main stand that offers an excellent view as it towers above the other three covered stands. Mansfield Town fans had travelled in their numbers, had filled the stand opposite to where we were sitting and certainly created a good atmosphere making plenty of noise. For them though this was a game where it was two points lost as opposed to one point gained. They dominated the game for the first 30 mins and went deservedly into a 2-0 lead, thanks to Davis Keillor Dunn. His first after a short pass into his feet by Rhys Oates, his second after sloppy play by Crewe. Powell gave the ball away in his own half, Stephen Quinn, seized on the opportunity, delivered an excellent ball into Keillor Dunns path, who controlled it well to shoot past Davies. Crewe surprised everyone by going close just after the half hour, Chris Long shooting against the bar with the Mansfield keeper Christy Pym beaten. Moments later they were back in the game with a goal from a set piece. A corner on the left taken by Tabiner fell conveniently to centre back Mickey Demetriou, and the former Newport player turned and lashed the ball home from close range. In the second half Mansfield should have regained their two goal advantage, Keillor Dunn, firing against the post, he should have had his hat track. Sadly for him the game turned sour for him in the 53rd minute, through no fault of his own. A wild reckless challenge by Calum MacDonald on his Mansfield debut on Long resulted in a straight red card and Stags boss Nigel Clough was forced to make a change, Flint on for his first appearance and the unlucky Keillor Dunn withdrawn. Minutes later with the visitors down to 10 men Crewe equalised. The resultant free kick found Jack Powell on the right and his excellent cross was glanced home by the head of Rio Adebisi for 2 2. Crewe had their tails up as you would expect, they should have scored again but Tracey blazed wide when well placed. Mansfield regained a bit of composure helped by renewed energy from their substitutes, Oates was denied a winner by the shoulder of the Crewe keeper and as they put late pressure on the home side looking for the winner there were several timely tackles and blocks to deny them. You actually had forgotten they were down to 10 men. Crewe held out for what appeared after 30 mins an unlikely draw. Mansfield certainly look a decent side at this level and on the basis of this performance if they can keep all eleven men on the field they must have a chance of promotion, their squad depth appears good for League Two. Crewe don’t appear to have any current stand out players of note unlike their past history and on that performance would suggest lower part of the division is where they will be. The attendance was 5,574, a healthy away following a good game with around 18 mins extra time added altogether, the match finished at 5:10pm!

Crewe Alexandra 0-0
Accrington Stanley

Gresty Road is one of the closest grounds which

myself (Ross) haven’t actually visited. A while ago, I (Ross) went on a slight
rant about the pricing structure at Crewe Alex on the 606 website because there
wasn’t a price for a student unless you purchased a membership which is
pointless as this may have been the only time I visit Crewe!

Anyway Adrian and I travelled the fairly short

distance to Crewe and arriving in the town at 6:15pm. We walked the short
distance to the ground and purchased our tickets. Crewe’s website stated the
Accrington Stanley game’s pricing for myself quite clearly “17-19 year olds - £10.50”.
Adrian asked for 1 adult and 1 17-19 year old before witnessing a predictable
question “Have you got your Crewe Alex Student Membership?” We continued to ask
why I needed a student membership as I was asking for the 17-19 year old ticket
at £10.50 rather than the Student ticket at £8.50 which also needed a
membership card which was unnecessary as we don’t go regularly.

Eventually, the girl at the desk asked her superior about this and she sorted
it out. After taking my details and printing our tickets I was asked to have a
photo taken...for a Crewe Alexandra membership card!

Basically we walked out the ticket office with 1 adult ticket at £19 which was
correct for Adrian and for me, a student ticket at

£8.50 plus a membership card which are usually £5.00 yet I got this for free.
We saved £2.00 somehow and gained free Crewe Alex membership!

Wikipedia says that Gresty Road “is a multi-use stadium in Crewe, England. It
is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of Crewe
Alexandra. The stadium was originally built in 1906, and has been redeveloped
substantially from the mid-1990s, and now has an all-seated capacity of 10,153”

The first of the major redevelopment of Gresty Road was the Railway end which was rebuilt in 1992 holding 638
and also containing disabled access and hospitality suites.

Next was Gresty Road end which holds 982 and also the Blue

Bell BMW stand which holds 1,680, followed by the installation of
new floodlights in 1998.
The Air Products stand was completed in time for
the 1999/2000 season which holds a massive 6,809 which holds almost 70% of
available seating at Gresty Road!

The game was an entertaining end to end game where both sides had chances to
snatch a winner but as I said to Adrian before half time with the many chances
missed “This has nil-nil written all over it!” I was right!

Overall we really enjoyed visiting Crewe Alex, not only because it’s one of the
closest remaining grounds for myself, but also because Crewe is a traditional
football town which is a nice feeling when visiting.