Chalk and cheese

Reece Wabara: terrific game against Crewe

The Latics striker writes every week for Chron Sport

WHEN comparing their styles of play, Preston and Crewe are at opposite ends of the spectrum in League One.

Everyone knows how the Railwaymen go about their business. They are a club devoted to good football.

We realised going into that game that if we gave their central midfield men time on the ball then life would quickly become difficult for us - as it was for MK Dons a week earlier, not to mention other teams this season.

Thankfully, Dean Furman and James Wesolowski were magnificent in midfield in not giving them any room to play. And when we had the ball, we attacked with purpose and could easily have scored more than the two goals we did.

I was especially pleased for James Tarkowski to get the first goal. It is never easy as a defender stepping off the bench as he did; that header clearly gave him a big lift.

From front to back, everyone performed in a totally dominant display. And each of Reece Wabara, Jose Baxter and Matt Derbyshire had their best games in Athletic colours. In particular, Matt was outstanding in his workrate, never giving defenders a moment of peace.

Maybe some expected us to be knocked back by conceding so late at home to Coventry on Saturday. But as a group, we were confident.

I remember saying to Tarky before the game kicked off, “I’ve no doubts at all that we will win this”. So it proved.

Put Crewe alongside Preston and it is chalk and cheese. That is no disrespect to the club that will arrive at Boundary Park on Saturday. They just have a different approach, one we need to combat first before we can earn the right to play the sort of football we produced at Gresty Road.

Going into the game on Tuesday, the manager may have been under pressure.

But not once did he ever put any of it on to the shoulders of the players and as far as I am concerned, that shows the sort of calibre of manager that he is.

As always, he encourages his players to go out and express themselves on the field.

The fans were superb at Crewe, too, and as players we all showed our appreciation of their efforts at the the end.

It is a cliché, but it felt like a home game. Now the task is to recreate the level performance on home soil on Saturday.




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