After a hard-fought victory at home to Fleetwood Town on Tuesday evening, the lads travel to Crewe Alexandra on Saturday for a 3pm kick-off. I was joined by Crewe fan and reporter Rhys Pountain, here's what he had to say...
FORMATION
"We usually play 4-3-3. The main target has been the partnership of Pickering and Kirk along the left but in our last game we changed to a 4-4-2 with Porter up top next to Mandron, who actually got among the goals."
WEAKNESSES
"It's that lack of cutting edge in the final third that is lacking, that final decisive touch. The other main weakness at the moment I'd say is at right-back. In recent weeks, Travis Johnson has been playing at right-back but, because of his lack of first team experience, Donnovan Daniels had to play there in our last game."
MANDRON!
"We brought in Mikael Mandron in the summer and we've looked to get him within the goals, and he started off fairly well, but he's not scored since around Christmas. He's more suited to being a hold-up player due to his stature. In recent weeks, Ollie Finney was among the goals, but he's out injured now, anyway. There are goals coming from all over the pitch, though."
Tom Flannagan and Ross Stewart are both still struggling with injuries but are on the comeback trail. Bailey Wright is two weeks away, but Josh Scowen should return after missing the Fleetwood game with a strain.
So Johnson will likely stick with the centre-back trio of Luke O'Nien, Dion Sanderson and Connor Mclaughlin; given the control the midfield has exercised over our past two games and our recent attacking success, Johnson is faced with the dilemma of sticking with a winning formula or rotating players who have recently faced a lot of minutes. The likes of Carl Winchester, Jordan Jones and Chris Maguire are just some examples of players who may benefit from some more playing time.
Given the Railwaymen appear to have a weak point at right back, Aiden McGeady may be set to have a field day on the left hand side; defensively, we dealt with Fleetwood's route-one style of play well, meaning we should be confident in dealing with Mandron up-front, although the former SAFC man always seems to have a good game against us.
Despite this, the Cheshire-based side currently sit 11th in the table so are expected to still be a test. A tight game is still to be expected, but I'd back us to nick a 2-0 win given our red hot form.
