Crewe Alexandra’s youngsters fell to a heavy 1–6 defeat on Saturday at the hands of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
For Wolves it was their biggest victory of the campaign and it came as a major surprise against a Crewe side that in their previous three fixtures had taken Arsenal to a penalty shoot-out in the FA Youth Cup, beaten Liverpool 3-0 and then Everton 4-0.
With weather conditions meaning that the match was played on a frosty, hard surface Wolves went ahead in the 18th minute lead through Nathaniel Mendez-Laing who cut in from the left before netting with an angled shot.
Within three minutes James Spray finished well after being set up by Mendez-Laing to double the advantage.
Crewe came back into the game and despite some good possession football leading to a succession of chances the home side were unable to reduce the deficit before half-time.
The visitors took advantage of Alex’s missed opportunities and Spray and Mendez-Laing took their personal tallies to a brace each as the score moved on to 4-0.
(Image courtesy of Dan Matthews)
John Gorman, a second half substitute for Wolves, made it five before Jon Stephens pulled one back for the home side. Spray rounded off the scoring to end a miserable day for the home side.
Speaking after the match Wolves coach, Mick Halsall said:
“This was a very good solid team performance in which, at times, we played some very good football.”
