Revisiting my Crewe Alex 25-26 Predictions

With the 2025-26 season all wrapped up, we can start to assess the campaign and take stock of everything that happened. A fun activity is to look back at the predictions made and see which ones hit and which ones missed, by a fairly wide margin. So, let's look back at the Crewe Alex predictions I made way back in August before the Salford game to see how many I got right. Or more like, if I got ANY right.

10 General(Bold) Predictions

1 "The Alex will win on the opening day, boxing day or both"

A good start. The Alex hit this prediction with their fantastic win at Salford, which will definitely go down as one of their best ever opening days simply because of it's unexpected nature and how good they were as an attacking outfit in that game. They scored 3 and it should have been 4 or 5. A brilliant day out.

Unfortunately they continued their tradition of being poor on Boxing Day, losing meekly 1-0 at Walsall. But because they won on the opening day, this prediction is a hit.

2 "Jack Lankester, Calum Agius and Matus Holicek will combine for 20 goals and 20 assists"

Sigh. I expected Holicek to play the full season and Lankester to give them around 30-35 games. Had they done so, I think this prediction would have hit, or been very close to a hit. But in the end, they got 12 games from Lankester and only 35 from Holicek, which meant this prediction never had a chance. The final totals were 9 goals and 5 assists, nowhere near what I'd hoped for. A wide miss.

3 Lee Bell will win a MOTM award

Given he'd been nominated for 2 awards last season, I felt pretty confident that he'd at least be in the running for one this season. He did get nominated for the February award, but missed out to Shrewsbury's Gavin Cowan. Close, but no cigar.

4 "The Alex will have fewer than 100 yellow cards"

Yey, another hit. The Alex's discipline was a real issue last season, but this season they really toned down that aspect of their game.

5 "They will reach the 3rd round of the FA Cup"

I was on my knees begging for a cup run. They never got close, as they went out in the First Round. It wasn't a disgrace, losing to League One Doncaster, but their barren run of results in this competition and their inability to generate the much needed extra cash continues to hold them back.

6 "Tom Booth will post 13 or more clean sheets"

People will be rolling in the aisles seeing this one. Again, back in August, I felt it had merit. The club had backed Booth to be the number 1. It was reasonable to think they might be the defence first team we saw last season. And after 5 games, I think it's fair to say this prediction was on, as he'd kept 2 clean sheets and only conceded 3 goals, 2 of them penalties.

But he would keep just 1 more clean sheet before being dropped in December. He finished the season with 3. Nowhere close. Yikes.

7 They will have a positive GD

It was a low bar, but then the Alex having consistently positive goal differences season to season has been a challenge for them. They finished on +6, which isn't brilliant, but is better than a minus figure.

8 "They will be inside the top 10 for accurate passes"

They finished 9th, which is surprising given how much they seem to spend sending it long. Is it too much to ask for them to increase their average even more and finish in the top 5 perhaps?

9 "The Alex's Player Of The Season will be someone not on the team last season"

The last 4 winners of this award were Chris Long(21-22), Rod McDonald(22-23), Mickey Demetriou(23-24) and Max Conway(24-25). All had been in their first(or only) season with the team when they won the award. So, suggesting a 5th straight newly acquired player would take home the prize was a reasonable shout.

And it came to fruition as Tommi O'Reilly took home the prize. As I'll explain below, I think it should have gone to Billington or Hutchinson, but O'Reilly is a fair pick. So, the streak continues for another year.

10 "No player will start every league game"

The Alex didn't just have 1 player hit the 46 games started milestone this season, they had 2, in Lewis Billington and Tommi O'Reilly, funnily enough the runner up and winner of the player of the season awards. Both were excellent this season and were the picture of durability. I can't feel mad about missing out on this one.

Award/Statistical Leader Predictions

Player of the Season

Predicted: Josh March

Actual: Tommi O'Reilly

March had a solid season, but he was well behind a number of other players in my rankings. That's not a knock on him, as in previous years he might have been closer to the top spot. It was just that this season, they had some very consistent performers.

Personally, I think O'Reilly was a touch fortunate to win. I put Billington and Hutchinson ahead of him in my own player of the season rankings, but it's hard to begrudge him after a season when he produced 18 goals either through goals or assists.

Breakthrough/Young Player of the Season

Prediction: Calum Agius

Actual: Emre Tezgel

I personally completely disagree with this award going to Tezgel. I get his goals, but given he missed 3 months of the season injured and took until October to get going, I find this a baffling pick. My choice would have been Owen Lunt. I get he's a full year older than Tezgel, but given Tezgel came with a lot of hype and in my opinion met expectations, whilst Lunt went beyond them, I think Owen can feel slightly hard done to by missing out on this award.

Top Scorer

Predicted: Josh March

Actual: Josh March

A solid hit. It wasn't a massively bold shout, but we've seen new signings come in and flop, but March on paper faced a fair amount of competition from Tezgel, Bogle, Moult and Thibaut, but saw them all off to finish on 11 goals and take home the clubs golden boot.

Top Assists:

Predicted: Jack Lankester

Actual: Tommi O'Reilly

I think Lankester would have been up there had he actually been able to stay fit. But in the end, he finished on just 2, whilst O'Reilly bagged 11 in a great season for the young Villa loanee.

Most Yellows:

Predicted: Reece Hutchinson

Actual: Max Sanders

Close. Hutchinson was level with Sanders late in the season, but Sanders went on to pick up a couple more, so Reece came a close 2nd, alongside James Connolly. Still, a solid shout in my opinion.

Conclusion

So, in the end I hit on 5 of my 10 general predictions and 1 of my 5 statistical predictions. Not a bad ratio personally. I'm looking to add 2 new stats categories for next season, those being "the most unused sub(outfield)" and "the most subbed on player". I might even have a think about other categories I could add. But for now, this is my run down of my predictions, which all in all I'm relatively happy with.