Dagnall is in league with stars like Owen

IT WOULD be fair to say Crewe striker Chris Dagnall owed some of the ground staff at The Alexandra Stadium a drink or two after this victory.

His double secured an impressive win for Crewe over play-off chasing Colchester but the game almost didn’t go ahead due to adverse weather conditions leading up to the match.

Kick-off was delayed to 3:15pm with ground staff and stewards working tirelessly right up until kick-off to get the pitch into the best possible condition.

And all their hard work was rewarded when Dagnall opened the scoring midway through the first half, when he glanced home George Cooper’s inswinging free-kick to clinch his 11th goal of the season.

An anxious home crowd had to wait until five minutes before time for Dagnall to double the home side’s lead when he converted Callum Cooke’s low cross from close range. He almost completed his hat-trick in stoppage time but was brilliantly denied by U’s keeper Sam Walker.

Crewe manager David Artell had nothing but praise for top scorer Dagnall,saying: “He’s a goalscorer, I played against him and didn’t like playing against him, he is a Sky Bet League Two Michael Owen! Owen never scored from 30yards out, he always scored from zero to eight yards out and Dagnall scored two more from that distance, allin-all it was a very pleasing performance.

“I try to get him in those areas as often as I can because he will score goals, he is a good finisher.

“We’re out to win every game now, there is 24 points to play for, we can get 69 points and that’s the challenge.”

Colchester manager John McGreal also gave his thoughts on the game, including a little insight into what happened before the match with the game in doubt.

He said: “The game was called off at 2pm, the next minute the referee had left it until 2:30pm and we were all running around seeing what was going on, we just wanted him to make a decision.

“At 2:30 I was on my way out and then the referee said ‘Yeah, the game is on’.

“We are professional people so we prepared as if the game was going to be on anyway.

“The first half wasn’t good, we looked a little slow to get out the blocks. But then we were very good in the second half, if Rekeil Pyke’s goal goes in early in the second half it would have had a good bearing on the result but that’s life.”