Relief for Kewell as County off the mark

HARRY Kewell breathed a sigh of relief at full-time after seeing his Notts County side finally claim their first win of the season with a hard-fought victory against Crewe.

Kewell replaced Kevin Nolan as Magpies boss earlier this month and presided over four games without a win, but this result finally sees them move off the bottom of the table.

Rob Milsom and Jordan Bowery exchanged first-half goals, before Elliot Hewitt netted the winner by planting Cedric Evina’s inch-perfect cross past Crewe goalkeeper Ben Garrett and Kewell insists their season starts now.

“It’s a big relief,” he said. “We’ve been working hard over the past couple of weeks and the performances have shown we are heading in the right direction.

“I feel the second half was the best 45 since I’ve been here. We were aggressive, we were picking up second balls and we were predominantly playing in their half.

“We changed a few things around at halftime and I felt we dominated. But this league, if you don’t put teams away, they can always have that chance to get that goal back and there were a couple of close moments in the second half.

“But I am delighted for my staff, the players, the fans that we have got the three points.”

County were excellent in the early stages and took the lead after five minutes when Milsom powered home. But Crewe grew into the game and Bowery spun well to finish following strong work from Corey Whelan.

Lewis Alessandra and Hewitt went close for County, before Hewitt won it with a towering header, although Crewe almost snatched a point through Ryan Wintle’s effort.

“We didn’t do enough to get anything out of the game,” said Crewe boss David Artell. “They scored from their two crosses in the whole game and that can’t happen.

“Looking at the game, they had two midfielders who scored which is disappointing from our point of view.

“We had enough of the ball to create more than what we did. We had two good chances and we’ve got to do more.

“We shouldn’t be in that position. But it’s not just about moving the ball around the pitch, you need to do something with it.”