2004–05 Crewe Alexandra F.C. season

Crewe Alexandra

2004–05 season
Chairman	John Bowler
Manager	Dario Gradi
Stadium	Alexandra Stadium
Championship	21st
FA Cup	Third round
League Cup	Third round
Top goalscorer	League: Ashton (18) All: Ashton (20)
Average home league attendance	7,143
← 2003–04 2005–06 →

During the 2004–05 English football season, Crewe Alexandra F.C. competed in the Football League Championship.

Season summary

At the start of the 2004-05 season, Crewe were rated one of the likeliest teams to be relegated. In the event, they put in a good showing in the first half of the season; comfortably in the top half of the table, but after selling Dean Ashton to Norwich City for a record £3 million in the January 2005 transfer window,^[1] Crewe failed to win any more games until the final match of the season, when they defeated Coventry City 2–1 and narrowly escaped relegation on goal difference.^[2]

Final league table

			P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
C	1	Sunderland	46	29	7	10	76	41	+35	94
P	2	Wigan Athletic	46	25	12	9	79	35	+44	87
	3	Ipswich Town	46	24	13	9	85	56	+29	85
	4	Derby County	46	22	10	14	71	60	+11	76
	5	Preston North End	46	21	12	13	67	58	+9	75
P	6	West Ham United	46	21	10	15	66	56	+10	73
	7	Reading	46	19	13	14	51	44	+7	70
	8	Sheffield United	46	18	13	15	57	56	+1	67
	9	Wolverhampton Wanderers	46	15	21	10	72	59	+13	66
	10	Millwall	46	18	12	16	51	45	+6	66
	11	Queens Park Rangers	46	17	11	18	54	58	-4	62
	12	Stoke City	46	17	10	19	36	38	-2	61
	13	Burnley	46	15	15	16	38	39	-1	60
	14	Leeds United	46	14	18	14	49	52	-3	60
	15	Leicester City	46	12	21	13	49	46	+3	57
	16	Cardiff City	46	13	15	18	48	51	-3	54
	17	Plymouth Argyle	46	14	11	21	52	64	-12	53
	18	Watford	46	12	16	18	52	59	-7	52
	19	Coventry City	46	13	13	20	61	73	-12	52
	20	Brighton & Hove Albion	46	13	12	21	40	65	-25	51
	21	Crewe Alexandra	46	12	14	20	66	86	-20	50
R	22	Gillingham	46	12	14	20	45	66	-21	50
R	23	Nottingham Forest	46	9	17	20	42	66	-24	44
R	24	Rotherham United	46	5	14	27	35	69	-34	29

Results

Crewe Alexandra's score comes first^[3]

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

Football League Championship

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
7 August 2004	Cardiff City	H	2-2	7,339	Ashton (pen), Higdon
10 August 2004	Sunderland	A	1-3	22,341	Rivers
14 August 2004	Nottingham Forest	A	2-2	24,201	Rivers (2)
21 August 2004	West Ham United	H	2-3	7,857	Ashton (2)
28 August 2004	Derby County	A	4-2	24,436	Jones (2), Vaughan, Ashton
11 September 2004	Burnley	A	0-3	11,274
14 September 2004	Queens Park Rangers	H	0-2	5,682
18 September 2004	Leeds United	H	2-2	9,095	Ashton (pen), Jones
25 September 2004	Preston North End	A	0-1	11,823
28 September 2004	Rotherham United	A	3-2	4,498	Ashton (2, 1 pen), Lunt
2 October 2004	Watford	H	3-0	6,382	Jones, Sorvel (2)
16 October 2004	Brighton & Hove Albion	H	3-1	6,811	Lunt, White, Higdon
19 October 2004	Wigan Athletic	A	1-4	7,547	Jones
23 October 2004	Reading	A	0-4	13,630
29 October 2004	Sheffield United	H	2-3	7,131	Foster, Thirlwell (own goal)
2 November 2004	Leicester City	H	2-2	6,849	Rivers, Otsemobor
6 November 2004	Brighton & Hove Albion	A	3-1	6,163	Ashton (2), Rivers
13 November 2004	Stoke City	A	0-1	17,640
20 November 2004	Gillingham	H	4-1	6,128	Vaughan, Ashton (2), Jones
27 November 2004	Coventry City	A	1-0	12,823	Ashton (pen)
30 November 2004	Millwall	H	2-1	5,409	Ashton, Varney
4 December 2004	Ipswich Town	H	2-2	7,236	Ashton (2)
11 December 2004	Plymouth Argyle	H	3-0	6,823	Lunt, Ashton, Doumbe (own goal)
18 December 2004	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	1-1	25,340	Lescott (own goal)
28 December 2004	Queens Park Rangers	A	2-1	15,770	Walker, Rivers
1 January 2005	Leeds United	A	2-0	32,302	Ashton, Rivers
3 January 2005	Preston North End	H	1-2	8,667	Walker
15 January 2005	Watford	A	1-3	11,223	Varney
22 January 2005	Rotherham United	H	1-1	6,382	White
5 February 2005	Leicester City	A	1-1	27,011	White
12 February 2005	Wigan Athletic	H	1-3	15,188	White
15 February 2005	Burnley	H	1-1	7,718	Jones
22 February 2005	Reading	H	1-1	5,703	Varney
26 February 2005	Plymouth Argyle	A	0-3	14,918
5 March 2005	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	1-4	8,212	Lunt (pen)
8 March 2005	Sheffield United	A	0-4	16,079
12 March 2005	Sunderland	H	0-1	7,949
15 March 2005	West Ham United	A	1-1	26,593	Jones
19 March 2005	Cardiff City	A	1-1	10,007	Vaughan
2 April 2005	Nottingham Forest	H	1-1	8,458	Sorvel
5 April 2005	Derby County	H	1-2	8,026	Vaughan
9 April 2005	Millwall	A	3-4	10,767	Lunt (pen), Jones, Varney
16 April 2005	Gillingham	A	1-1	10,315	Vaughan
23 April 2005	Stoke City	H	0-2	9,166
30 April 2005	Ipswich Town	A	1-5	28,244	Vaughan
8 May 2005	Coventry City	H	2-1	9,269	Higdon, Jones

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	8 January 2005	Coventry City	A	0-3	7,629

League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1	24 August 2004	Blackpool	H	4-1	2,994	Jones (2), Rivers, Ashton
R2	21 September 2004	Sunderland	H	3-3 (won 4-2 on pens)	3,804	Jones, Ashton, Foster
R3	26 October 2004	Manchester United	H	0-3	10,103

Squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Clayton Ince 2 DF Billy Jones 3 DF Richard Walker 4 MF Kenny Lunt (captain) 5 DF Adrian Moses 6 DF Stephen Foster 7 MF Neil Sorvel 8 MF Justin Cochrane 9 FW Steve Jones 11 MF David Vaughan 12 MF Lee Bell 13 GK Ben Williams 14 MF Ben Rix 15 FW Luke Varney 16 DF Anthony Tonkin 18 DF Chris McCready

No. Position Player 19 MF Michael Higdon 20 FW Andy White 39 FW Anthony Barker 22 GK Stuart Tomlinson 23 MF Alex Morris 24 FW Matthew Platt 25 DF Mark Roberts 26 MF Gary Roberts 27 MF Lloyd McGowan 28 FW Kyle Wilson 29 MF Mark Rivers 30 DF Ryan Austin 31 DF Robert Lloyd 33 DF Paul Bignot 35 DF Colin Murdock 37 DF Darren Moss 38 GK Karl Wills

Left club during season

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 32 DF Keith Briggs (on loan from Norwich City) 21 FW Paul Edwards (to Leek Town) 10 FW Dean Ashton (to Norwich City)

No. Position Player 34 DF Jon Otsemobor (on loan from Liverpool) 17 MF James Robinson (to ÍBV)

References

1. "Norwich secure £3m Ashton signing". BBC Sport. 10 January 2005. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
2. "Crewe 2-1 Coventry". BBC Sport. 8 May 2005. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
3. http://www.statto.com/football/teams/crewe-alexandra/2004-2005