Witton Albion 2-3 Crewe Alex - 7 Thoughts

The Alex started their pre-season off with a visit 30 minutes up the road to face Witton Albion. It was a mixed bag of a game where there was some good, some bad and some stuff in the middle. Here are 7 thoughts I had on their narrow 3-2 win:

Trialist

Everyone's eyes lit up at the sight of the name 'trialist' on the Alex's first half team sheet. Was it Joe White? Well no, unfortunately not. It was actually 23 year old former Harrogate midfielder Tom Hill. He hails from Formby but has struggled mightily with injuries in the early years of his career to the point that he has played only a handful of professional games.

It was hard to read much into his performance today in the searing heat against a tier 7 side. He was neat and tidy, but nothing too special. Will they keep him around for Prescot Cables or even the Stoke game next Saturday? Hard to say, but they might well do given how short on numbers they are in midfield currently.

Out of contract trio

12 months ago we saw Zac Williams play the pre-season without a deal signed. This time around, we have 3 following the same route. At the time of posting, Lewis Billington, Stan Dancey and Luca Moore are all unsigned. The club are seemingly slowly working their way through the out of contract players with Patrick Mlynarski and Fin Roberts signed in the last couple of weeks. At this rate they might actually have the last 3 signed in time for the Accrington game.

Veterans Rested

2 notable absentees today were their oldest and most experienced veterans in Mickey Demetriou and Conor Thomas. Them not playing makes total sense. Neither is worth risking on a firm and uneven non-league surface given their issues with injuries over the last 2 seasons. I suspect they'll be used sparingly in the next few weeks to preserve them for the proper games in August. That's more than fine with me.

Underbaked

The vibe going into this game did feel a touch underwhelming. Only 1 brand new signing was on show in Jordan Gibson, with the other new addition being the returning Luke Offord. There was hardly much to get excited about.

The holes were evident all over the pitch as well. Joel Tabiner played the first half in midfield alongside Hill, a position he hasn't played in for 2 seasons now. In the 2nd half, their defence was Hutchinson, 2nd year scholar Tom Graves, Phil Croker and Dion Rankine at RB.

I know I'm like a broken record right now, but this squad is at least 5 signings short of being ready for the season. Thankfully they have 4 weeks to rectify that and things change quickly in football. But that time is slowly ticking away and they need to get those badly needed bodies over the line. The sooner the better.

Penalty Audition

Josh March had a 50% record from the spot last season. Ok, he only took 2, but in his audition to be the main man on them this season, he fluffed his first audition. Whilst he did well to win the penalty, his effort was a poor one, with the back up Witton keeper(who was terrible on the whole) making a comfortable save. March was the standout in pre-season 12 months ago, but today wasn't the start he'll have wanted. Hopefully thats just a little bit of pre-season rust that he'll quickly shake off.

Standouts

Onto the positives and Fin Roberts capped off his new contract with 2 goals and an assist. He's going to have a hard time forcing his way up the pecking order in attack that currently contains at least 5 players ahead of him, but this was a decent start to the pre-season for him. Luca Moore popped in the late winner, Jordan Gibson was lively down the left and Luke Offord was classy as always, You read nothing into these games, but there were some positives to take for sure.

Credit

And finally, credit to Witton Albion for giving the Alex a good game. They were slightly unlucky not to get a draw and competed well for the most part. Given some of the chuff the Alex have played in previous pre-seasons, where they've ran up large wins, this was a better test for them. Or maybe it was just them being off it? No, we'll give Witton some credit.

Off the pitch, it was my first visit to Witton's ground. Whilst the ground itself is nice enough, the surrounding area.....yikes. Still, the team gave the Alex a decent run out, so best of luck to them for the coming season.