Fan's Views - Barnsley, Carling Cup 1st Round,

Tuesday 12th August 2008, Alexandra Stadium

Against a near full strength Barnsley team the back two and the front two were awesome tonight, particularly in the first half.  Joel Grant is an exciting player who, with experience will develop into a Rodney Jack sort of player.  Michael O'Connor seems to want to do everything this season, and it was highly comical to see him desperate to take the second penalty only for Steve Holland to tell Elding to take it.
 
Scott Kynnersley

I attended on Saturday full of hope, but tonight was much different, as after the woeful performance against Saturday, it was with trepidation that I attended the Barnsley game, but I shouldn't have worried as Crewe put in a battling performance.  Barnsley did have more of the play and probably had far more shots, but we defended well, battled hard and earnt a victory.  Pope ran his socks off, Elding showed up well for the first hour, and much credit must go to the defence who as a unit played well

Paul H

  
Was this any better than Saturday? Well actually...... 100% yes.  Only a Carling Cup game I know, and any team that get knocked out usually use the excuse that it is a Mickey Mouse cup, but Barnsley showed very few changes from Saturdays Championship game.  True, Barnsley did show glimpses of excellent individual play, hit the bar in the first half and had one disallowed in the second half, but the Alex continued to battle and gained a deserved 2-0 lead at half time.  Under pressure for a lot of the second half, but the back 5 were determined not to concede. 
 
David Barlow
 
Really enjoyed tonight's game.  Byron Moore had his best ever game for the Alex, constantly helping out our defence, and the next minute, taking in the full back.  Joel Grant on the other wing will prove to be frustrating at times and excellent at others.  Baudet was much maligned and Saturday, but him and Macready tonight worked hard at keeping a clean sheet, with Collis catching  everything thrown into the box.  James Bailey did prove to be a weak link when the midfield were pressurised in the second half, but overall a top performance. 

Adrian Dobson

Enjoyed tonights game played at a fast pace and with passion and that over used word commitment! Woodards looked a top class full back and Joel Grant is the Ronaldo of League 1. We now need to keep the form going up to Carlisle and trying to put a couple of Goals past Super Ben. Will be intresting to see if SH makes any changes for Saturday.
 
Trev G