Crewe Alex: Holland may be ready to give Miller his big chance

by Gwyn Griffiths

WHILE Steve Holland may already be in pursuit of a striker after Nicky Maynard's untimely departure, the Crewe coach still plans to give Shaun Miller time to prove he can step up to the mark.

After Maynard marked his first outing for Bristol City with a stunning hat-trick in a friendly against Royal Antwerp, his former club lacked the cutting edge he so often provided them in their final first-team warm-up game.

It would have been greedy to have contemplated a repeat of last week's goal feast against hapless Hull and Alan Irvine's side offered a stiffer examination. Yet Crewe provided enough ammunition for Calvin Zola and Miller and later on new recruit Anthony Elding to have made for a high-scoring encounter.

But Miller, who spurned a couple of juicy second-half glimpses at goal, and Elding, who understandably lacks match fitness, will do well to start cracking them in at the rate Maynard was doing at the end of last season.

That is why Holland has swiftly thrown a fraction of Maynard's £2.25m fee onto the table in a bid to ensnare his third centre-forward signing of the close season. He well recalls the maxim of Crewe's 2003 Second Division promotion campaign when Dean Ashton, Rob Hulse, Rodney Jack and Steve Jones hit such a rich vein – you can't have too many good forwards.

Preston had four notable ones in their ranks on Saturday, too, and two of them Neil Mellor and Simon Whaley were the difference between evenly-matched sides.

Mellor won the decisive 77th-minute penalty to atone for a first-half miss, while Whaley's running from deep always posed problems.

Crewe had defended well until then, but when Julien Baudet and Chris McCready allowed Mellor to slip through the middle onto Jason Jarrett's pass trouble was brewing. McCready, it seemed, got the touch to take Mellor down.

That was as careless as was the manner in which North End left-back Matt Hill was allowed to ghost in from a short corner to head a stoppage-time second, which left his side with a flattering margin of victory.

The Alex faithful had to wait for the final 20 minutes for their first sight of Elding, but they reserved their early emotions for booing former favourite Billy Jones when his name was read out on the North End team sheet.

Yet it was another player with an Alex connection who made the first impression when the action got underway in bright sunshine. Wing ace Joe Anyinsah, who spent the final months of last season helping Crewe escape the drop, charged down the right and set up Mellor with a juicy seventh-minute chance inside the six-yard box. But a fatal hesitation allowed Steve Collis to smother at the front man's feet.

North End were the most fluid of the sides in a low key first 45, but Crewe arguably had the best chances.

Miller was offered an early sight of goal when Eugen Bopp found him on the left of the box with an exquisite chip, but the youngster volleyed wildly way past the far post.

Chris McCready came closer to breaking the deadlock on the half-hour mark when he launched a header onto Joel Grant's cross and the ball travelled inches over Andy Lonergan's woodwork.

Baudet thought he'd scored when he connected firmly with a Billy Jones free-kick, but the Frenchman was flagged offside.

Preston finished the half with a flourish and Whaley crashed a rising drive over, while Ross Wallace headed over from Whaley delivery.

Baudet was unlucky again when another headed finish was chalked off for offside shortly after the re-start.

Then Zola came close to adding to his pre-season account in the 56th minute. His low header from Grant's cross looked bound for the bottom corner, before Lonergan scrambled the ball around the post.

Ex-loanee Anyinsah thought he'd put the visitors ahead when he headed firmly into the bottom corner, but Mellor's delivery from the left was adjudged to have travelled behind the byline.

Lonergan was smartly off his line minutes later to deny Zola as Crewe looked to add the Championship outfit to their pre-season list of scalps.

Byron Moore, Steve Schumacher and Chris Clements joined Elding for the closing stages with Zola, Grant, Bopp and impressive young midfielder James Bailey making way.

Miller was getting nearer when he stretched to finish off a McCready header across goal, but he curled one far too high after Moore's pass placed him in on goal.

At that stage Crewe were looking the most likely to steal it, but after he was tripped, Mellor cooly sent Collis the wrong way from the spot.

And while Lonergan blocked an Elding drive and Michael O'Connor headed onto the roof of the net, it was Hill's looping header at the death which provided the game's second goal.

Alex coach Steve Holland said: “It looked as though we might score a goal. Calvin produced a couple of saves from their keeper and Shaun got in a couple of times. We got into good positions without producing that bit of ability.

“I was relatively pleased with the performance, although we weren't quite right defensively with the penalty as we tried to recover a positional error. And I was a bit disappointed with their second, which was a soft goal from a corner when someone didn't do their job properly.

“But Preston were decent opponents and I thought we held them quite well and caused them some problems.”

Crewe: 1 Collis, 2 Woodards, 3 Billy Jones, 6 Baudet, 14 McCready, 7 Bopp (Schumacher, 70), 8 O'Connor, 23 Bailey (Clements, 70), 11 Grant (Moore, 70) 10 Zola (Elding, 70), 20 Miller.

Subs: 5 O'Donnell, 12 Rix, 15 Abbey, 19 Pope, 13 Legzdins.

Preston: 1 Lonergan, 2 Hart, 3 Hill, 4 Jones, 5 Mawene, 7 Anyinsah, 6 Carter (McKenna 65), 8 Jarrett, 11 Wallace (Sedgwick 65), 9 Mellor (Ormerod, 78), 10 Whaley (Hawley, 80) Subs: 15 Nicholson, 14 Davidson, 20 St.Ledger, 18 Neal, 19 Chaplow.