Before all royal events come the preliminaries and in this case it was Dario Gradi's Crewe Alexandra side dropping anchor at the Pirelli for this Tuesday night encounter. Some immense talent has passed through the Alexandra system under Gradi....names such as Neil Lennon, Dean Ashton, Danny Murphy and er......Robbie Savage. So tonight would see what the latest crop of Crewe talent were made of against a Brewer's backline that should have been a dream for Alex hitman Shaun Miller with 5 goals to his name already and the Brewers conceding 16 in all competitions this season up to now.
Miller and co sadly were disappointed as from the off Burton put pressure on the Crewe rearguard with some intricate passing and fluid movement. I'd been watching the channel 4 documentary 'Dispatches: The truth about drug's in football' and hoped none of the testers turned up at Albion later on in the evening as Adam Bolder had turned into Barcelona's Xavi, spraying the ball left and right and making late runs into the penalty area, this was a very different Brewer's side.
Crewe to their credit and tradition played some excellent football with neat touches, give-and-go's and skill on the ball from the backline all the way through to the front men but just couldn't find a way around the new centre-half pairing of Tony James and Ryan Austin who read everything Crewe had to throw at them. Chris Palmer on the Brewer's right hand side (and occasionally the left) added to Crewe's misery bombarding the box with sublime crosses and set plays with ex-railwayman Calvin Zola poised in the middle desperatly seeking a goal against his former employers.
Mid-way through the half the Crewe net was finally rattled when Aaron Websters long ball was latched onto by Justin Richards beating goalkeeper Steve Phillips in a sprint to then finish past two covering defenders to send the fans into ecstasy (or something close to) finishing off with the trademark Justin Richards dance which surely will be replicated across Burton-on-trent's dance floors in the coming weeks.
The second period in truth was a little flat, plenty of good passing in resemblance to the first half but little penetration from either side. Brewer's keeper Ross Atkins when tested was level to everything Crewe had to offer and showed speed coming off his line to help his defence. Zola, desperate for a goal had to endure chant's of 'Eeyore,Eeyore!' from the travelling Crewe supporters after fluffing efforts in the box and having been denied by Phillips. Still, why watch Barca and co on a tuesday night in the champions league when you can have Champagne football down at the Pirelli, eh?
So 1-0 it stayed and a quite brilliant performance from Burton once again in a real contrast to last season. A crowd of just under 2,500 at the Pirelli certainly got their moneys worth and things are looking up with the Brewer's now in the play-off spots. Bring on Di Canio........
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