• Railwaymen rise to third in the table
• Goals from O’Riordan and White
• Unbeaten home run extended to 13

Crewe Alexandra moved up to third in League Two with a 2-0 victory over Gillingham at Mornflake Stadium.

Goals from Connor O’Riordan and Joe White – the Alex’s 11^th and 12^th different scorers of the season - earned a third straight home win.

The success extended The Railwaymen’s unbeaten home record to 13 games – the best sequence in almost three decades.

And it saw Crewe leapfrog the Kent side into the automatic promotion places at this early stage of the career.

Manager Lee Bell will naturally be delighted at his side’s six-game unbeaten league run and first clean sheet of the season, and will now turn his attention to this weekend’s trip to Salford City.

Bell named the same starting side as he did at Wrexham, and the subs’ bench was also unchanged.

Gillingham keeper Jake Turner held an early Courtney Baker-Richardson header as Crewe started brightly and asked most of the questions.

But in the 20^th minute the visitors, who had barely mustered an attack, rattled a post through Ethan Coleman’s drilled effort from outside the box.

Dom Jefferies saw a tame shot easily saved by keeper Harvey Davies, but The Railwaymen hit the front on the half-hour mark.

Zac Williams swirled a super cross to the far post and O’Riordan, who had stayed up from a corner, rose high then nodded down into the bottom corner.

Davies made a terrific double save to preserve the Alex’s advantage, particularly from George Lapslie who looked certain to score after good play from the Gills to tee him up.

Macauley Bonne missed a golden chance to level before the break after Davies could only palm a Robbie McKenzie drive into the striker’s path, but he screwed wide from close range.

The Alex were forced into a change at the break after Christopher Long picked up a knock and was replaced by Matus Holicek.

Gills also made a change, introducing Tom Nichols and switching to two up front.

On 50 minutes Williams raced onto a Rio Adebisi cross but his volley was deflected for a corner by a retreating Gills defender.

Turner saved a Baker-Richardson shot with his feet after powerful play by Shilow Tracey, while Jefferies chipped one over the bar at the other end.

The game became scrappy as the substitutions flowed, with neither side creating a clear sight of goal.

Adebisi curled an effort wide before White doubled his side’s advantage in the closing stages.

Three subs linked nicely on the counter. Holicek sent Aaron Rowe racing through and the winger spotted the run of White whose shot had too much power for Turner to keep out.

That killed the game off and the Alex comfortably saw out the remaining minutes.

Crewe (3-4-3): Davies; O’Riordan, Offord, Demetriou; Adebisi, Williams (Finney, 64), Powell (White, 72), Tabiner; Tracey (Rowe, 72), Long, Baker-Richardson (Nevitt, 64).

Subs not used: Booth, Cooney.

Booked: Powell.

Gillingham (4-2-3-1): Turner; Alexander (Nichols, 46), Masterson, Ogie, Malone; Lapslie (Williams, 64), McKenzie; Mahoney, Coleman, Jefferies (Nadeson, 76); Bonne.

Subs not used: Morris, Clark, Ehmer, Clarke.

Booked: None.

Referee: D Middleton.

Attendance: 3,427 (207).