Crewe Alex's 2025-26 Season Review Part 2 - The Good

Yesterday, I went in detail into my perceived failings from this season for Crewe Alex. There were a lot no doubt. But if you honestly think the 25-26 season was one full of only failures, with nothing positive to take from it, then I politely disagree. This wasn't a total disaster of a season. It was one of frustration, of missed opportunities, for sure. But it was also one of signs of progress, of lessons being learnt, of signs of positivity to take into 2026-27. So, let's get into them:

The Pitch

It might seem a strange one to start with, but the pitch this season was leaps and bounds better than it was 12 months ago. In 24-25, it was a sand pit from very early on. This season though, whilst a section under the main stand once again became very threadbare, the pitch on the whole looked decent throughout.

Special pitch stitching machines worked wonders on the worst section that straddles the touchline in front of the main stand, but understandably the club lacked the money to have more of the pitch done.

What is a double positive as well is that next season, the pitch will be used less as there won't be a handful of U21s games played on like the last few seasons. So that should help it last longer. It was noticeably better this season, so credit to Josh Whalley and his grounds team for a fantastic job.

Injuries

I know it's strange given I listed injuries in part 1 as a bad point. But that was heading into the season and it was carry overs from 24-25. But whilst they were bad, I think on the whole the Alex's injury situation this season was better.

Booth, Billington, Hutchinson, Finney and O'Reilly didn't miss a game through injury. Not one. Pond and Lawlor didn't miss a game after joining in January. Connolly and Agius only missed the last couple. They got 30+ games out of Demetriou, Sanders, March, Powell, Lunt and Tezgel, with each player only getting 1 moderate injury that saw them miss one block of time each.

The only players I would say were injury prone were Lankester, Thomas and Bogle. Lankester's situation was a disaster, but we just have to hope and pray a good pre-season will allow him to start next season fit and healthy. Bogle's fitness has been an issue following his back injury in the summer of 2024 and he's been chasing his tail ever since. Thomas is just Thomas.

Point being, the Alex's injury situation wasn't that bad this season. Even at their worst, during the winter period, they didn't once have to resort to putting scholars on the bench, as they have done in previous seasons. Yes, they suffered injuries throughout the season. But guess what? Every team goes through this. It needs to stop being an excuse, as this season I don't think they failed to make the top 7 through injuries. They generally did well on this front.

Building Blocks

In the final game of the 24-25 season, the Alex's starting line up had 4 loanees in Marschall, Knight-Lebel, O'Riordan and Conway starting the game. It would have been 5 had Tommy Lowery not been suspended. Chris Long started and they surely knew he was on his way out. Adrien Thibaut started and he was never going to be their main striker. The point is, there were very few building blocks for this season present in their final few line ups last season.

Fast forward 12 months and that is very much not the case. Take their starting XI against Cambridge. I would say 7 of the starting XI and 11 of the 18 man squad from that game will either definition, or likely, will be back next season. They have a somewhat settled goalkeeper situation with Ian Lawlor and Tom Booth as their tandem. At the back, Billington, Demetriou and Hutchinson will be their main starters next season in 3 of the 4 spots. In midfield, Owen Lunt is a solid option at worst and a genuinely good player at best. In the attacking midfield/winger areas, they have Jack Lankester, Joel Tabiner, Matus Holicek and Calum Agius to fill 3 spots. Yes, I know the former 3 have had injury issues, so their returns to full form are not guaranteed. But, on paper at least, that's a very good 4 player group to build around.

Josh March upfront has proven in back to back seasons that he can lead the line and provide double figures for goal contributions. Their 22-23 season top scorer was Dan Agyei. He left at the end of that season. In 23-24, the pattern was repeated with Elliott Nevitt. In 24-25, Hemmings, Long and Bogle were their strikers. The former 2 left and the latter struggled to maintain fitness this season. But for the first time since dropping into L2, they have a productive striker and their top scorer coming back for another season. It's a welcome change.

The main point here is that they have their likely starters at GK(Lawlor), RB/RCB(Billington), LCB(Demetriou), LB(Hutchinson), CM(Lunt), RW(Lankester/Tabiner), CAM(Holicek), LW(Agius) and ST(March) already in place, all talented players who, if they can stay fit and play 30+ times next season, can make some noise in L2.

System in place

12 months ago, the Alex were exclusively using the 3-5-2/3-4-3 system. The fans hated it. It stifled any attacking creativity and everyone knew it needed an overhaul. So, in came the 4-2-3-1, which at the start of the season I was nervous about. I worried the management lacked the nous to make it work. But work it did. Yes, not perfectly, but it worked.

Again, having that primary system in place for next season puts them in a great position compared to 12 months ago, when they were having to devise a system from scratch and find players to play in it. They should have no issues with it taking time to gel or having to issue a new set of instructions to their players over the summer and into next season. They should know how to play it and what is expected.

That should hopefully allow them to more easily recruit players, given they know what positions they need. Then, once the squad is assembled, gelling said new players should be hopefully relatively simple.

Young Lads

Focusing more on the younger players, Lee Bell finally saw the need to give significant minutes to the homegrown lads in the squad. I know I criticised the production line in part 1, but the fact is, Lewis Billington, Owen Lunt and Calum Agius saw their league minutes played skyrocket from 2,387 in 24-25 to 9,169 in 25-26. All 3 established themselves as first team starters where as last season, they were more bit part players.

And let's also be honest and admit than in their decision to drop their academy category from 2 to 3, it will likely lessen the pressure on Bell or any future Crewe manager to play youngsters, as it will soon start to cost far less to produce them.

But the youngsters did play when they were fit to do so and produced some solid results on the whole. Holicek posted a career high for goals, Agius ended with 8 goal contributions as a 2nd year pro and as mentioned, Billington and Lunt showed they could hang with the first team after real question marks about them 12 months ago. They will all be in a better place next season development wise and if the likes of Stan Dancey, Luca Moore and Owen Taylor can step up as well, they should have solid core of homegrown players to help fill out the squad/starting XI.

Philosophy

You can criticise Lee Bell for many things. But seeing people label him defensive this season annoys me. Make no mistake about it, this season was a return to the Crewe of old. Well, sort of. Yes, they didn't retain the ball very well and they went long far too often. But their overall philosophy was to play on the front foot and look to score goals. The stats back that up.

They were inconsistent and struggled on the road to score enough, but I would argue that was down to the lack of attacking depth at their disposal. Had they gotten 30+ games of availability out of Lankester and Tabiner and more games out of Holicek and Tezgel, they'd have been able to better rotate Agius, March and O'Reilly. They'd have been able to mix things up depending on the opposition, been able to make changes later in games etc.

And this is by far my biggest compliment to the management, that this group was able to score as many goals as they did with the aforementioned names missing big chunks or most of the season. Maybe this was in spite of them, not because of them. But I think some credit is due their way.

Transfers

Whilst there were some massive duds in the Alex's transfer business, they also knocked it out of the park on a number of signings. Reece Hutchinson and Josh March were excellent bits of business to stabilise their LB and ST positions and hopefully Ian Lawlor gives them stability in goal. The loan signings of Tommi O'Reilly and Emre Tezgel were also superb. Hopefully the success of those 2 will convince other local(ish) clubs to send their brightest talents to the Alex.

And fingers crossed, given their success rate with some signings, they can go once again and find difference makers in the summer. A CB, 2 midfielders and a 2nd striker should be high on the shopping list.

Home Results

One of my big criticisms of Lee Bell was the middling results under him at Gresty Road. I'm a firm believer that your home form should always be your back bone and under Dave Artell in L2, it was. With Bell, it's been more mixed. In 24-25, they finished 9-6-8, which was poor. However, this season they finished 12-5-6. They won their most points at home since they got promoted in 2019-20.

Don't get me wrong, there were some really poor performances. The heavy defeats to Swindon and Walsall. Dropping points from winning positions against Barnet, Newport, Bristol Rovers and Harrogate.

But they were also pretty good and competitive for the most part. They went 3-2-2 against the top 7. They finished with a +6 goal difference, their highest total since 2022-23. There were some truly excellent performances and wins over Salford, Grimsby and Notts County. They deservedly battled to draws against Cambridge and Chesterfield.

They made short work of several teams, failed to score in just 5 games and really should have picked up at least 2 more wins, had they shown a bit more concentration against Newport and Harrogate. They finished 8th in the home league table, level on points with Grimsby and Chesterfield. It was a much better season at Gresty Road than either of the home campaigns of 23-24 and 24-25 and that's a bit plus for me.

Response

Whilst we criticise the Alex under Bell for perhaps lacking the consistency needed to string together the wins and unbeaten runs that are needing to make the top 7, they never went too long without a win. In 23-24, they posted winless streaks of 5 or more games twice. Last season, they did that 3 times. This season, they did it once. Almost every time they needed a response, they got one.

Targets = Met?

People are quick to criticise Bell for not being successful, but at what point was it ever said that he HAD to achieve promotion? I remember Charles Grant saying he wanted the Alex to compete for the play-offs. And that they needed to be in L1 to be successful. But I don't think he or anyone at the club ever said finishing in the top 7 was a line in the sand target.

For me, they did play better football, which was a requirement. They did play more homegrown players, which was a requirement. And they did compete for the play-offs, which was a requirement. I think they've hit all their targets. Now, we can have a conversation about whether the line in the sand should be higher going into next season, but I still think Bell did everything that was asked of him.

Slow Start Narrative = Dead

Another worry going into this season of course was how they were going to start the season. They failed to win their opening 2 games in both the previous 2 seasons. This time though, no such issues. They went on to win their opening 4 games and whilst it's fair to say they rode that good start for much of the season, it shows the importance of a good opening run.

Yes, they never quite captured those heights, but for those glorious first few weeks of the season, we got to enjoy the Alex sitting top of the pile. Hopefully they can use that as a benchmark for next season in terms of getting some early wins.

Discipline

A big improvement from the Alex was in the number of cards they accumulated. Getting rid of a few hot heads from last season definitely helped, but their yellow cards dropped from 103 to 84 and their red cards dropped from 6 to 1. They were 15th in the cards table, down from 7th last season. They avoided silly confrontations and avoidable red cards, with only 7 games lost to suspensions, those being 3 for Thibaut, 2 for Owen Lunt and 1 each for Sanders and Hutchinson. It was a markedly better season for discipline.

Low Ceiling? High Floor!

Maybe some critics will say this is setting the bar way too low. But for me, whilst I do think there is a real possibility the Alex peaked under Lee Bell and current owners, they have also proved, across 3 seasons working together, is that they have a reasonably high floor. Lee Bell is a 60 point manager. He's proven that 4 seasons on the trot. So, whilst we can have conversations about whether it's better to stick or twist with him, we know that he will always be able to get results out of his players.

The Alex will likely never(and I hope I don't regret these words in the future) be a relegation candidate under his management. Look at the struggles of the likes of Gillingham, Tranmere and Bristol Rovers this season and know that kind of manager is a rare one, given the failures of much more experienced and higher profile managers in Gareth Ainsworth, Pete Wild and Darrell Clarke amongst others. The Alex might not have the highest of ceilings under Bell, but they have a reasonably high floor.

Memories

24-25 was a painfully dull season where they had very few memorable games. Tell me, from that season, anything that happened in their home draw with Salford. Or Bradford. Or Doncaster. Give me your highlight of the draws at Gillingham or Notts County. I bet you are struggling to even remember the score of each game.

Well, whilst they did have some very low lows this season, they also had some games which I will remember for a long time. The heavy wins at Salford, Fleetwood, Tranmere and Shrewsbury. The late results against Notts County(H), Harrogate(A), Grimsby(H), Bromley(A), Tranmere(H) and Oldham(H). Some really strong competitive performances in tough circumstances against the likes of Chesterfield(H), Bristol Rovers(H), Barnet(A), Crawley(A) and Cambridge(H).

If all you remember of this season was poor performances and disappointment, I don't know what to tell you. There was plenty to enjoy this season. Yes, there arguably wasn't enough of those moments, but there were fond memories I will take from 25-26. Which is more than can be said about 24-25.