In the toughest pre-season match Kidsgrove have had by far, the Grove managed to come back from 0-1 down to get a hard fought, well deserved 1-1 draw against Crewe Alexandra. It was a game of two very good, solid defences and the goals came from the penalty spot and a fantastic free-kick.

The game started off very lively with both Kidsgrove and Crewe both having early chances. Crewe was to have the first though in the 2nd minute, the ball was crossed in beautiful and the Crewe striker managed to put it into the net, but the linesman flagged it for offside. 2 minutes later at the other end, Crewe played a miss placed pass straight to Malbon who ran towards the box, before playing in Kyle Blake, who found space in the box to have a shot, but it fizzed wide of the far post.

Crewe continued with their dangerous attacks throughout this first half as they test the Kidsgrove keeper Kieran Harrison who made multiple great saves to keep the scores at 0-0. The most dangerous coming from a free-kick that hit the Kidsgrove wall but it managed to fall to a Crewe player inside the Kidsgrove box and Harrison had to make a great close range save to keep it all square.

It wasn’t just Crewe in the First half, Kidsgrove also looked dangerous especially from free kicks. Diskin put in some beauty of balls into the Crewe box that were very dangerous and put some pressure on Crewe.

Coming into the end of the first half and Crewe had Kidsgrove defending for the last 5 minutes, Harrison once again making some great saves and the Grove putting in a good shift defensively and kept the score 0-0 going into half time.

At the break, Scott Dundas decided it was time to switch up the players and brought on Ruben Wiggins-Thomas and Tom France who replaced Kingsley Adu-Gymafi and Jake Lovatt, who had picked up a slight injury right at the end of the first half.

Once again Crewe started very brightly in the second half and had an early chance but, Harrison pulled out another fantastic save to keep it level.

Ten minutes into the second half, Kidsgrove started to test the Crewe keeper and defence more with a shot from Will Byers whistling wide from outside the box and Diskin once again providing beautiful balls into the box from free-kicks but still, no one could break the deadlock.

Until the 61st minute when a Crewe player was brought down by the Grove defender, who pleaded his innocence, but the referee pointed to the spot and gave Crewe the penalty. Mandro stepped up to take the penalty for Crewe and he slotted it into the top left corner past Harrison to make it 0-1 to Crewe with just under 30 minutes to go.

Kidsgrove were now looking for an equalizer with just 15 minutes left to go in the match and they came close once again from a free-kick by Diskin. The winger put in a powerful low ball into the box, which the Crewe goalkeeper spilt before a defender had to clear it off his line.

And with just over 10 minutes to go, Kidsgrove found themselves that equalizer they’ve been looking for, making it 1-1. It all came from another beauty of a ball from Diskin, a wide free-kick whipped into the box it goes over everyone but it finds Gunnell at the back post fighting off a defender and he had the composure to hit a sweet strike, on the half volley and put it past the Crewe goalkeeper to draw Kidsgrove back level to make the last 10 minutes off the match interesting.

The final minutes saw a lot of pressure from Kidsgrove and them testing the Crewe keeper in the closing stages. However, the referee blew the final whistle and, it ended as a 1-1 draw. A well-deserved draw against very tough opponents, the toughest we will have faced all pre-season and Kidsgrove and the manager Scott Dundas will take a lot of positives out of this match and, this result will give the manager, players and fans a lot of confidence ahead of the upcoming season.

There is one more pre-season game for Kidsgrove and it is against Runcorn on Saturday at the Autonet Insurance stadium before their first competitive match of the season against Scott Dundas's old club, Chasetown in the FA Cup the following Saturday on the 12th September.

Photo by Gerard Austin