Steve Davis gives us his post-match reaction from Whaddon Road.
Steve Davis says he was pleased that his Crewe Alexandra side showed some real character to fight back from going a goal down to ten-men Cheltenham this afternoon. Billy Waters gave the Robins the lead in the second half after his team-mate Kyle Storer had been shown a straight red card for catching James Jones in the face with a stray arm before the interval.
November. After a well contested cup tie, Steve told crewealex.net: “We are pleased that we are still in the tie because going 1-0 down you do fear the worst a bit but the goal seemed to spark us back into life a bit.thJones popped up with a well-taken equaliser to set up a replay at Gresty Road on 15
“I thought that before the opening goal, there was not a lot in it. It was tight game, competitive and both teams had the odd chance. They were a threat with the height they have in their team, from corners and free-kicks and that is where their goal came from.
“I didn’t think it was a free-kick, it was right in front of us and I thought it was soft one, but we haven’t dealt with it going into our box. Its dropped and Billy has stuck in the rebound.
“We had lost a couple of players with Daggers having a tight calf and Ollie struggling with a tight hamstring. We didn’t take a chance with them with the games we have coming up and we didn’t want to make it any worse, so we made the changes there. They will be doubtful for Tuesday night.
“We went a goal down and we know how good Cheltenham are defensively even when they have gone down to ten men. I didn't really see the incident but the referee took his time with it and made the decision.
"Their two banks became even harder to break down and they defended deep and worked doubly harder to protect their lead. They work hard and we had to stay patient and show some quality to open them up.
“The players got themselves going and we took a few risks, pushing players forward. We encouraged Jonah to get forward and Coops has picked him out terrific. It was a great first touch and he put it away well. It was a really composed finish.
He added: “We then went for it and had one or two chances to nick it at the end. We are pleased we have not lost and we had another chance at our ground now to progress. I don’t know what it is with the FA Cup, but we always seem to struggle to progress, so that will be our target when it comes around. Firstly, we have Chesterfield in the Checkatrade Trophy on Tuesday and we want to progress in that one first.”