Former Crewe hero Dele Adebola made a goalscoring return to his old stamping
ground on his full debut for Birmingham.
After 41 minutes, the Nigeria-born striker pounced on Martin Grainger's cross
to steer the ball past former team-mate Jason Kearton in the Crewe goal.
Two minutes later, Bryan Hughes took advantage of poor defending to increase
Birmingham's lead, bundling his way past Marcus Bignot and Dave Walton to fire
the ball home.
Crewe made a lively start and could have taken the lead in the second minute.
Shaun Smith raced down the wing to set up Steve Anthrobus, but the big striker's
volley flew wide.
Grainger was lucky not to be sent off after 13 minutes after being booked for
a foul on Bignot and moments later chopping down Seth Johnson.
But the wing-back remained on the field and missed a glorious opportunity to
give Birmingham the lead after 23 minutes. From Jon McCarthy's free kick, he
could only produce a tame shot which was easy to save for Crewe's Australian
goalkeeper Kearton.
Birmingham front pair Adebola and Peter Ndlovu linked up well to cause all
sorts of problems for Crewe's back four. Early in the second half, Adebola
chested the ball into his strike partner's path but pacey Ndlovu fired his shot
wide.
Crewe fought back in the second half but could not get past Birmingham's
defence, which was well marshalled by Steve Bruce.
Johnson hit a fierce drive which Blues goalkeeper Ian Bennett dropped and he
was grateful to defender Michael Johnson, who hacked the ball clear.
After 57 minutes, Dave Walton did well to latch onto a back-pass from Martin
O'Connor and lift the ball over Bennett, but the ball went wide.
Ndlovu gave another example of his skill, skipping inside Bignot and Lee
Unsworth to shoot wide from the edge of the area.
Crewe went close to scoring a late consolation goal as Smith's driven free
kick curled just wide.
Teams
Crewe: Kearton, Bignott, Smith, Unsworth, Walton, Lunt,
Garvey (Street 66), Whalley, Anthrobus, Johnson, Little.
Subs Not Used: Lightfoot, Foster.
Booked: Anthrobus.
Birmingham: Bennett, Bass, Charlton, Bruce (Purse 84), Johnson,
Grainger, McCarthy, O'Connor, Adebola (Forster 89),
Hughes (Holland 86), Ndlovu.
Booked: Grainger, O'Connor.
Goals: Adebola 42, Hughes 45.
Att: 5,559
Ref: C J Foy (St Helens).
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