Luke's Football blog

Doncaster come into this game as favourites with a 2 goal advantage and with them being in unstoppable form it will take a lot for them to not go through as they have the advantage in this tie.

Crewe didn’t have the best of games in the first tie at home, and they will have to face an inform Doncaster side who haven’t lost in 2 months, but if they can get an early goal to settle their nerves, then never say never. 

First half and it started the way the away side wanted to with a headed goal by ever present captain Mickey Demetriou, who has made up for his error in the first leg with a huge goal for his side that could give them a chance to get level on aggregate.

Crewe were putting more pressure on the home side trying to get that goal to make it level on aggregate and all that pressure led to another goal, from a dangerous cross from Chris Long which wasn’t dealt with well by the Doncaster left back, who bundled it into his own goal to make it level on aggregate.

Crewe, who haven’t won in ten games and had to go into the emergency loan window to find a goalkeeper for the playoffs, are currently looking the more favourable side against the most inform side in the country.

Doncaster were fired up after conceding two first half goals, and they kept coming back with chances of their own in the first half, but the Crewe defence stood strong and defended well as they wanted to keep the momentum that they’ve built in this first half.

Half-time and it was not the half the home side wanted. They had the advantage, but in the space of sixteen minutes it was cut short. They would hope for a much better second half. Crewe will hope to keep the tie as it is and possibly take it to penalties as they will want to stop the threat of the home side which we saw during the end of the first half. 

Second half and Crewe came out stronger with a chance from Shilow Tracey which was blocked by a Doncaster defender, however, that would be the only chance they would have, as Doncaster were piling on more pressure, but Stryjek and the Crewe defence were having an unbelievable game blocking everything and eventually taking it to extra time.

Extra time and it was again the home side who were dominating as they were looking for the winner, with Luke Molyneux coming close with his shot, it was looking more likely that Doncaster were going to break the deadlock in this game, but once again the Crewe defence stood strong and didn’t allow that, and it would soon eventually go to penalties.

After the first two were scored, the goalscorer Demetriou missed his pen from a nice save from the Doncaster goalkeeper, but they would also miss theirs with a good save from the Crewe goalkeeper. The rest of the pens were scored by Crewe, which meant that Adelakun would have to score to keep his side in it but his pen was saved by Stryjek, which meant that with the odds against them, Crewe were through to the playoff final where they would play either Crawley or MK Dons in the final. Lee Bell has done a huge job with everything that has gone against him and his side still managed to power through, and they have the chance to secure promotion back to league one.