Sheffield United - 3 Crewe Alexandra - 1

A SPIRITED Crewe performance was not enough to earn any points in a match that threatened to spill over several times due to the hosts' physical approach.

A shoulder injury sidelined Marcus Bignot and his place was taken by David Wright another 18-year-old making his full debut.

The game was only six minutes old when Rodney Jack, released by Anthrobus, raced from the halfway line outstripping the defence before slotting the ball home.

Despite pressure from the home side, Crewe's defence marshalled by Walton and backed by safe keeping from Kearton kept them at bay.

There were just a few minutes of the half left when Crewe suffered a hammer blow, Walton had to leave the field with a nasty injury after being kicked in the face which eventually led to him going to hospital.

In the time lapse before the Alex could bring on a sub, Sheffield equalised, Hunt heading in from a right wing cross.

Six minutes after the interval, Sheffield went ahead when Hamilton headed a cross from the left out of the reach of Kearton.

Crewe went down to 10 men after Seth Johnson was dismissed for a second bookable offence, his case wasn't helped by Borbokis going down as though shot despite Johnson's late tackle hardly making contact.

Hard as Crewe fought they were unable to get back on level terms and with only five minutes left Woodhouse got Sheffield's third from point blank range.

A night that had started so brightly ended in failure and the treatment room will be a busy place after this physical encounter.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.