- Garner's late equaliser saves the women's side from losing
- Unbeaten run in 2023 remains in tact
- Crewe let three goal cushion end in a draw
Crewe Alexandra Women kept their unbeaten start to 2023 going although they surrendered a three goal lead, but was it one point gained or two points dropped in the end?
The Reds got off to a flying start, when Laura Garner's strike was brilliantly tipped onto the post by the Fleetwood goalkeeper, but Emilia Edwards was on hand to smash home from close-range.
One became two within a matter of minutes as Loren Cooper doubled their lead from a Garner corner.
Head Coach, Matt Fisher had named an unchanged side for this fixture and they were clearly in their groove when they made it 3-0 as Gemma Brough expertly struck from distance past the Fleetwood stopper.
The seven minutes before the break became a disaster for the away side as the referee pointed to the penalty spot for Fleetwood which was converted. They quickly added a second on the counter attack which devastated the Crewe defence.
Fleetwood complete the comeback in the 44th minute to end the first-half three all.
The second 45 became scrappy with both teams trying to prevent each other from taking the lead. Unfortunately, it was Fleetwood who mounted enough pressure to take the lead, for the first time in the match.
The Alex regrouped and looked to cause problems again, but were starting to see their main threat was coming from set-pieces and this proved pivotal. Garner grabbed a 90th minute equaliser from a 35-yard free-kick.
Amanda Fallon's effort in the dying seconds of the game wasn't quite strong enough to get past the Cod Army number one.
Head Coach, Matt Fisher: "We didn’t do some things as well as we can that’s for sure, but we scored four very good goals and got a point against a top side.
"Individual errors cost us the three points in the end but I think our overall game plan worked and we certainly looked more dangerous than we did last week. The girls are raring to go into next weeks game now."