Crewe's U-21s draw with Birmingham at Gresty Road

Crewe Alexandra's Under-21s drew 1-1 with Birmingham City this evening at Gresty Road. Crewe substitute Callum Saunders opened the scoring with a superbly taken finish after collecting a clever flick on from Fraser Murdock, but that was cancelled out by an equally well taken strike from a Blues free-kick that gave Alan Martin no chance of saving it. A draw was a fair reflection of a fairly open game with James Collins giving run outs for fringe first-team players Martin, George Ray, Ryan Colclough and Chuks Aneke.

Young Waters went close to winning it with a forceful run and shot at the end, but he couldn't keep his effort down and Murdock perhaps should have taken a late chance at the far post first time but he decided to take a touch first and the chance was lost.  A winner for Crewe would have been harsh on the Blues, who finished equally as strong and had chances to snatch the victory in an even affair.

The game continued to be end-to-end in the second half with the visitors probably shading the better of the opportunities before Saunders sprinted onto a flick on from fellow sub Murdock, leaving the Birmingham goalkeeper helpless and exposed and virtually walked it into the empty net. Birmingham deservedly hit back via the well struck free-kick.

Both teams had good spells of possession and created decent chances with Billy Waters going close and both Colclough and Aneke registering shots on target in the first half. Birmingham also kept Martin fairly busy and arguably went closest to scoring when hitting the outside of the post through their skilful winger Brown towards the end of the first period.