Inman the main man is right on Crewe
CREWE boss Steve Davis threw down the gauntlet to his players to win more home games and escape their relegation dogfight after beating Rochdale at the Alexandra Stadium.
First-half strikes from Marcus Haber and Brad Inman against a wasteful Dale were enough to seal Crewe’s first league win since November.
And Davis, whose side won for the first time in nine games, reserved special praise for goalscorer Inman who fired in his eighth of the campaign.
“We got a performance that merited the result,” he said.“We didn’t always get that over this season but it’s nice to win at home.
“I did reiterate that to the players in the week about the importance of winning our home games and if we do, it’s enough to stay up so that’s the target.
“Once Brad set off and got in front of the centre-half, who I thought was going to bring him down, he rode that little tussle well and he really showed great composure and slotted it in."
Dale top-scorer Ian Henderson had a glorious chance to give his side the lead with a free header, but he nodded Callum Camps’ 24th-minute cross wide.
But Crewe took the lead seven minutes later when the Rochdale defence failed to deal with George Cooper’s corner, which bounced kindly for Haber to nod in unmarked.
Inman robbed Peter Vincenti in the middle to break through and held off Jim McNulty’s challenge to finish coolly past Josh Lillis to double Crewe’s lead just before half-time.
After the break, Joe Rafferty flew down the right and fired a low cross for Camps who blazed just over the bar as Dale came out fighting.
Haber nearly had his second when his header deflected off Oliver Lancashire and Lillis punched the goalbound effort off target.
Despite having an initial effort blocked, Dale marksman Henderson wasted a fantastic chance by curling the rebound wide as Dale drew a blank.
Rochdale boss Keith Hill said: “I’m really disappointed with the defensive aspect of the team.
“We trained well, the lads have prepared well and again it comes to matchdays and it comes down to responsibility.
“We haven’t seen enough players accept responsibility defensively so I’m really bothered about that and it upsets me because there’s a good group of lads here and a good team that’s being let down by a few individuals.
“Last week we beat top of the league, this week we get beat 2-0 by second bottom and that’s really infuriating and I don’t know what I’m getting from week to week.”