Cheshire F.A. Senior Cup
1st Round
Tuesday 20th October 2026
Kick Off 20.00 Actual 19.59
Crewe 4 Alsager Town 2, attendance 96
24’ 0-1
31’ 0-2
59’ 1-2
61’ 2-2
83’ 3-2
90’ + 3, 4-2
@ The Excel, 3G Pitch
West Street
Woolstanwood
Crewe
CW2 8SJ
£5 Admission
£2 Programme available, 10 pages, didn’t bother buying.
Another midweek trip north for another one of the new clubs at Step 6 this season. The ground here at The Excel is a 3G cage, with spectator access behind the entrance end goal, where there are two sections of cover and along the left touchline, where a seated stand is due to be put in, but currently just has a couple of temporary awnings. The two storey clubhouse/changing rooms are outside the ground itself, where hot and cold food are available, but service is very slow, especially at halftime, not helped by the stewards refusing to let spectators out of the cage until all players and officials had left the pitch…still, it’s the club that suffers most here, as it cuts into the time available to spend money in the clubhouse. Totally unnecessary and poorly thought out! At least the attendance figure was genuine, with the official figure being just one higher than my headcount and only charging a fiver at this level was a pleasant surprise.
The match pitted two teams from North West Counties League Division 1 South, with 17th hosting 19th (out of 20) as far as league positions go. Alsager went ahead after twenty four minutes, scoring after a long punt forward was punched by a hesitant ‘keeper, but resulted in a visiting striker rolling the ball into an empty net as it failed to clear the box. They doubled their lead seven minutes later, when an initial shot was saved, but followed in with a shot into the roof of the net. Just before the hour mark Crewe got back in it, when a cross was met with a blocked shot, but the rebound was volleyed into the bottom corner. It only took them two minutes to draw level, finishing low into the corner after being played through on goal. It was end to end stuff, with Crewe going ahead for the first time in the match with just seven minutes left, sweeping in from six yards after the ‘keeper spilled a cross from the left. The game was finally made safe three minutes into stoppage time, when a shot was tipped onto the crossbar, before being nodded in from close range by Joshua Maris, which completed his hattrick.
No real problems heading north to the game. Coming back saw the M5 closed, so SatNav diverted via M6 instead to pick up the M42. Just one closure tonight on the M25, with it closed at J15, so diverted one junction towards London on the M4 before rejoining the M25 via the southbound slip road. The game didn’t finish until ten o’clock, but still home for 01.35.
