PREVIEW: Crewe Vs Barnsley

The inside track on our trip to Crewe in the FA Cup

4 January 2020

Barnsley will put their second tier battle for survival to one side this weekend as they head to Crewe in the Emirates FA Cup Third Round - here's the preview!

In what many in football will see as the end of the busiest stretch of the season, with this upcoming fixture being the fifth game in just over a fortnight, the Reds can forget league football for a few days as attention briefly switches to the oldest cup competition in the world.

First played during the 1871/72 season - that's 149 years ago - it was first won by Wanderers who beat the Royal Engineers 1-0 at Kennington Oval in front of 2,000 fans. There have been 43 different winners of the FA Cup, the Reds are one of them (1912).

Our hosts and opponents on Sunday 5th January are Sky Bet League Two outfit Crewe Alexandra and they have been as far as the semi-finals of the cup (1888) and their record attendance came about in an FA Cup tie against Spurs in 1960.

This will be the third occasion that Barnsley and Crewe have met in this competition. The first meeting was way back in 1906 when after an initial draw in Crewe, the Reds won 4-0 in a replay; in 1927 Barnsley thrashed Alex 6-1 in a Third Round tie at Oakwell.

Back in the present day and both sides have been in relatively good form, with the Reds' narrow defeat in Derby on Thursday night their first in six matches whilst the Railwaymen have lost just once in their last 10 fixtures, and only Liverpool, Manchester City and West Brom have scored more than Alex's 46 league goals this season.

Crewe are here because they've already beaten both Accrington Stanley and Eastleigh in the previous two rounds and they'll take comfort from the fact that in their last two meetings with the Reds in knockout competition (League Cup) they've won on both occasions.

They were both 2-0 victories in 2008 and 2014. Indeed, in that most recent defeat for the Reds, we had the likes of Adam Davies, Martin Cranie, James Bree, Conor Hourihane and Sam Winnall in the team, at Oakwell.

This is the FA Cup and anything can happen.

Barnsley saw their unbeaten run end in their first fixture of the New Year just a few days ago at Pride Park, but it was once more an away game where they fell by just one goal and can count themselves unlucky considering Curtis Davies' handball that should have seen the Reds awarded a rare penalty.

But the victory at Millwall immediately prior to Christmas remains the solitary success on their travels during the 2019/20 season. So again, it must be noted that Sunday could well be a challenge for Gerhard Struber's improving young side.

The Reds boss and his defender Mads Andersen both sat down with the press ahead of the cup clash to help preview the tie and you can get their views by clicking the linked videos below.

Apologies, this video is unvailable.

26-year-old forward Chuma Anene is in decent form for the Railwaymen. The Norwegian striker has six goals in his last six outings. He scored twice in their 3-1 win over Eastleigh in the previous round as well as superbly finishing off a picturesque team move on New Year's Day in their 4-1 victory against Carlisle United at Gresty Road.

Former Sheffield United man Chris Porter, now 36 is still leading the line for Alex and still knows where the net is. The big man has 10 goals to his name already this season and scored in his last fixture against Barnsley - a 3-2 defeat for his then-side, Colchester United back in the 2015/16 Sky Bet League One campaign.

In charge of Crewe is Yorkshireman David Artell. A former Alex player (2010-12) who started out his playing career with hometown club Rotherham United, Artell has been in situ at Gresty Road for three years now. Indeed, this week marks his anniversary, having replaced former Reds defender Steve Davis at the helm and currently holds a respectable 39% win ratio in charge of Crewe.

He spoke to the official Crewe Alexandra website about Sunday's FA Cup tie and you can see what he thinks of the clash by watching the video below.

The Reds have dominated this fixture, historically speaking. They have 26 victories to their name compared to Crewe's 14, with 15 games ending in a draw.

It's just 2016 since our last trip to Gresty Road when a Sam Winnall tap-in and an Alfie Mawson free-kick saw Barnsley to a 2-1 victory on their way to promotion success via the League One playoffs.

We have sold just under 1,200 tickets for this Emirates FA Cup Third Round match but tickets remain available from Crewe on the day with no increase in price - click on THIS LINK for further information.

Match Reports

REPORT: Crewe Alexandra 1-3 Barnsley

Reds into the fourth round for the first time in seven years

5 January 2020

The Reds’ Emirates FA Cup journey began with a trip to Gresty Road, to face the high-flying Railwaymen from Sky Bet League Two and Gerhard Struber's side edged a competitive contest.

Despite a gutsy effort from the home side, Gerhard Struber’s Reds ran out winners thanks to goals from Jacob Brown, Conor Chaplin and Luke Thomas – the second two goals coming after a Daniel Powell equaliser – allowing Barnsley to book a place in round four of the competition.

Struber decided to make four changes to his starting XI from Thursday night’s loss at Derby County. The impressive Elliot Simoes was handed a start after netting his first goal for the club, with recalls for Kenny Dougall, Jacob Brown and Brad Collins to the starting line-up.

It was one of those recalls that did paid dividends early on in the game. A delightful knock-down by Conor Chaplin into the path of the onrushing Brown, saw the ‘star man’ strike a clean half-volley which nestled into the bottom corner on just three minutes. That set the early tone and the travelling 1,200 or so Barnsley fans were delighted.

A couple more half-chances came, firstly as a captain Alex Mowatt had a strike at goal, only to see it superbly saved by Jaaskelainen in the Crewe net. The ‘keeper was in action again shortly after, this time stopping from Luke Thomas as the Reds looked to stamp their authority further on the match.

However, with just over half an hour on the clock, the home side did spring into action. With Bambo Diaby and Kenny Dougall both down on the floor following a heavy collision, Crewe played on and raced into the box. Charlie Kirk squared the ball across the middle of Collins’ area only for Daniel Powell to somehow miss an open goal.

That was to be the last action of an entertaining first half. The Reds went in with the lead.

HALF TIME: Crewe Alexandra 0-1 Barnsley

The second half began in controversial fashion. Crewe, who had finished the first half the stronger, continued that effort and equalised. However, the frustration of the Barnsley players was clear after the goal and the replays did indeed show that there was an offside in the build up by quite some margin, before Paul Green headed home to level for 1-1.

With both teams looking to now go on and win the game, the next chance of note was totally unexpected. Jordan Williams was brought down out wide, allowing a free-kick to be whipped into the box, or at least that’s what we thought. Clarke Oduor fooled everyone and decided to shoot, cannoning his audacious effort off the crossbar after a fine fingertip save from Jaaskelainen.

After some scrappy play for a period of time, the Reds did deservedly get themselves back in the lead. Mowatt crossed into the box from wide left, where Bambo Diaby met the ball and headered back across the box for the inform Conor Chaplin to head home and restore the lead, making it 1-2 to Struber’s side.

The final few moments played out, with Ben Williams and Patrick Schmidt entering the action in place of Clarke Oduor and Elliot Simoes.

In truth, despite the best efforts of the home crowd who were up for the contest throughout, Brad Collins wasn’t troubled and a place in the fourth round was secured when Luke Thomas fired into an empty net to secure the win after the Reds broke quickly from a Crewe free-kick, which the home ‘keeper had gone upfield up for.

FULL TIME: Crewe Alexandra 1-3 Barnsley

Barnsley XI: Collins (GK), J. Williams, Diaby, Andersen, Oduor, Dougall, Mowatt, Thomas, Simoes, Brown, Chaplin.

Subs: Radlinger (GK), B. Williams, Schmidt, Styles, Bähre, Halme, Sibbick

Crewe XI: Jaaskelainen (GK), Ng, Pickering, Wintle, Powell, Kirk, Ainley, Green, Hunt, Lowery, Anene.

Subs: Richards (GK) Jones, Finney, Dale, Johnson, Adebisi, Mbulu.

Ticket News

FA CUP TICKETS | Crewe Alexandra (A)

18 December 2019

Tickets for our FA Cup third round trip to Crewe go on sale from Thursday 19th December.

We have received an allocation of 1,582 allocated seating tickets in the Whitby Morrison Stand for our Emirates FA Cup third round tie at Crewe Alexandra, Sunday 5th January kick off 2.01pm.

A further allocation may be available if demand is high.

Tickets will be made available for sale in the following order:

Thursday 19th December 9am – Reds Reserved Plus Members
Monday 23rd December 9am – Reds Reserved Members
Tuesday 24th December 9am – Reds Pride and Oakwell Centenary Society Members
Thursday 26th December 10am – General Sale

All categories, with the exception of general sale, are one per qualifying criteria.

Memberships cannot be up or downgraded. The ticket allocation is for the person named on the membership card only.

Prices:

Adult £15 

Senior Over 60 £10 

Juvenile Under 16 £5

Ambulant disabled supporters will pay the relevant age related category with a carer’s ticket being free of charge for those in receipt of the higher level of full time carers allowance or PIP equivalent (evidence required). Wheelchair user tickets are charged at £10 for the wheelchair user with a carer’s ticket free of charge.

Official Club Coach Travel departs at 10.30am priced at £20 per seat. We have a strict no alcohol policy. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult 18+.

The postage deadline for this game is 3pm Monday 30th December. Tickets will remain on sale from the Box Office/Reds Superstore until 2pm Friday 3rd January 2020, subject to availability.

If you are purchasing away game and cup tickets for other people we strongly advise you to correctly assign the ticket to each individual for every game. This will enable us to offer the correct privileges to supporters on occasions when tickets are on restricted sales in a category system.

WE WILL NOT ACCEPT TICKET STUBS WHEN TICKETS ARE ON RESTRICTED SALE. ONLY TICKETS PURCHASED IN ADVANCE AND CORRECTLY ASSIGNED WILL COUNT TOWARDS ANY REQUESTED QUALIFYING CRITERIA.

BARNSLEY FOOTBALL CLUB

Standings

PREVIEW: Crewe Vs Barnsley

REPORT: Crewe Alexandra 1-3 Barnsley

FA CUP TICKETS | Crewe Alexandra (A)

WE WILL NOT ACCEPT TICKET STUBS WHEN TICKETS ARE ON RESTRICTED SALE. ONLY TICKETS PURCHASED IN ADVANCE AND CORRECTLY ASSIGNED WILL COUNT TOWARDS ANY REQUESTED QUALIFYING CRITERIA.