Championship side Ipswich Town made it through to the third round of the Carling Cup this evening - but they were made to fight hell and leather to make into the hat by a spirited Crewe Alexandra side.
It took a fine strike from Ipswich Town's captain David Norris in the 101st minute to finally kill off the Railwaymen. The Alex cheered on superbly by the crowd were right in this cup tie and controlled the majority of the possession in the second half of normal time.
The hard working Alex had their chances too, especially in extra-time with substitute Byron Moore forcing goalkeeper Brian Murphy into a fine tip over with his first touch. Clayton Donaldson hooked one over the crossbar as the Alex searched for an equaliser.
Overall, the Alex arguably deserved to take the tie to penalties but Norris showed a moment of true class to punish Crewe for not clearing their lines from a corner.
Crewe Alexandra lined up against Championship side Ipswich Town without Calvin Zola (knee) and Nick Powell (away on International duty with England Under17s) so that meant a first involvement at first-team level for Jordan Connerton and a recall for the versatile Dan Shelley.
The opening passages of this intriguing Carling Cup against Roy Keane's Tractor Boys saw both sides nice and compact with chances few and far between. The Alex did try and set an early tempo and a flying Clayton Donaldson was rather unfortunate not to reach a wicked cross from Joel Grant. Donaldson nearly reached Grant's excellent delivery from the left hand side.
Ipswich soon began to press forward looking to open the scoring. The towering Tamas Priskin forced Taylor into an early save with a close range header and Norris shot wide as the Championship side began to impose themselves on the game.
On 20 minutes, Priskin skipped past Patrick Ada and his clever cut back was rebounded off of the Crewe captain Lee Bell via Matt Tootle. It went behind for a corner. A couple of minutes later, the covering Danny Blanchett did exceeding well to clear from the head of Carlos Edwards at the far post.
Ipswich were certainly on top possession wise with midfielder Grant Leadbitter pulling the strings in the centre of the park. Luke Hyam forced Rays Taylor into a save at the second attempt with an effort from distance that bounced right in front of the Crewe goalkeeper.
Crewe were having to play it a bit longer to try and escape from our half and the giant McAuley was getting his head onto most things entering the Ipswich penalty area. There were also some cup-tie tackles going in with Leadbitter booked for catching Westwood late.
Shaun Miller continued to chase lost causes for Crewe and we did offer some threat from set plays with David Artell winning one free-kick delivered by Westwood.
Then on 36 minutes, Roy Keane's side nearly caught Crewe cold on a counter attack. Blanchett's poor cross to the edge of the Ipswich box was cut out far too easily and that gave the visitors a chance to break in numbers. The ball was shifted out to Edwards on his opposite side and after cutting in from the wing he thumped the Alex post. It was a fine shot but arguably Taylor had the shot covered.
Ipswich ended the first half looking the more likely side to score but the Alex defended well and restricted them to long-range efforts. The lively Shane O'Connor curled one just wide of Taylor's right hand post before Crewe lost the impressive Matt Tootle through injury. He was replaced by Mat Mitchel-King at right-back.
At the half-time interval, Ipswich made a change with their new signing from Wigan Athletic Jason Scotland replacing Hyam.
Ada was called into action early on to block a shot from Scotland before Norris tested Taylor from distance via a free-kick.
Crewe began to take control of Leadbitter and Norris and began to enjoy their night more. A superb break forward by Artell created an opening for Westwood to produce one of the passes of the night through to Grant. He cut out the goalkeeper with alow cross but as both Miller and Donaldson rushed in for a tap in, a great recovery tackle by McAuley averted the danger.
That was the signal for a double change from Ipswich with Darren O'Dea and Carlos Edwards making way for Jamie Peters and Ronan Murray.
Crewe were more dangerous in the second half with Murpy shooting wide and Murphy rushing out to deny Donaldson after a clever lay-off from Miller.
With 18 minutes of normal time remaining, Crewe could have gone ahead. Another Westwood free-kick found Artell inside a crowded penalty area and the ball eventually fell kindly for Grant at the far post but he couldn't quite get his side volley on target. It was a chance although a difficult skill to execute.
With time running out, both sides continued to press forward looking to find that goal that would prevent extra-time. Priskin forced Taylor into a splendid save before sub Murray cut in and curled one just wide.
With six minutes left on the clock, Donaldson found Miller inside the Ipswich penalty area but after a tidy turn his shot lacked accuracy to trouble Murphy.
Crewe nearly grabbed a famous win in the closing minutes too, with Donaldson heading a deep cross from Blanchett over and then Miller forcing a fine save from the Ipswich goalkeeper after some fine persistence play from Donaldson close to the by-line. That late chance would have won it.
That was Miller's last contribution of the evening as he was replaced by the fresh legs of Moore for the beginning of extra-time and his impact was almost immediate. He latched onto a through ball from Murphy and hit a wonderful shot that was brilliantly pushed over by the well-placed Murphy. Moore had nearly scored with his first touch in the opening seconds of extra-time.
A couple of minutes later, Crewe had to survive a strong penalty appeal after Artell appeared to handle a ball as Ipswich launched a longer ball looking for the robust Scotland. The Ipswich bench certainly thought there was a strong case of handball.
It was real end-to-end stuff with both sides looking to win it and avoid post kicks. Priskin shot straight at Taylor after for once getting the wrong side of Ada and at the other end a lively Moore shot straight at the Ipswich keeper.
The driving force Bell almost picked out a fine run of Moore and Ada made a super block on Norris after he had broken into the box.
The deciding factor on the night arrived on the 101st minute via a corner. Murphy couldn't quite enough on his header to clear his lines and Norris punished him and us ten-fold with a rising shot into the roof of the net. It was terribly harsh on Crewe.
The crowd were excellent and tried to rouse the Alex. The roar they gave the team as they prepared for the second half of extra-time was superb and the players gave their all tonight. No-one could fault them for attitude, effort and desire. They wanted to stay in this cup and so did the supporters.
We had a couple of half chances to take through to penalties too, with Donaldson hooking a shot over the bar after a long throw from Donaldson had caused panic in the Ipswich rearguard.
Luke Murphy, in an attempt to make up for his poor header that led to the goal also drilled a well-struck shot from 25 yards at Murphy. Crewe continued to press forward looking for an equaliser but we couldn't really muster that one clear cut chance that we arguably deserved to take on the night.
