CREWE ALEXANDRA

The club were finding the going tough, but still managed to be founder members of Divs. 2, 3 (North) and 4.  In 1924, they took part in a match against Bradford where there were four penalties awarded in just five minutes of play.  Amazingly, only one was scored, but they had to repaint the penalty spots at half-time as they were becoming obscured.  The 30's had highs and lows.  The main stand burnt down and there were two Welsh Cup wins in 1936 and 1937.

Not much of note occurred for a number of years, apart from going 30 games without a win in 1956-57 and then they were drawn against Tottenham in the FA Cup 4th round in 1960.  A creditable 2-2 draw meant a replay at White Hart Lane, which the team travelled to by train arriving at Euston on platform 13 and going home from platform 2.  They lost the replay by 13-2.  They did manage to get through the 1967-68 season without losing at home though. 

Goals were hard to come by for a considerable time.  The first hat-trick in four years won Peter Coyne a colour TV in 1980 and he later scored another to win a unit to house it in !  A local garage was on a fairly safe gamble when they offered a car to any player who scored 30 goals in the 1982-3 season, especially as the whole club had only scored 29 the previous term !  It was at the end of that season that Dario Gradi arrived as manager and he is still there today, having turned the club into a solid outfit, with a reputation for playing good football and producing a string of talented young players. Much of the club's success has come during his tenure with Wins in the play-off to go into the First Division in 1997 (after having identical records for seasons 1995-96 and 1996-97) and a spanking 8-0 victory over Hartlepool United in the Auto Windscreens Shield with each goal scored by a different player.  It looked like he had solved the scoring problem against a team that Crewe have played so many times, no other two clubs have met more often.

More recently the club have entered an agreement with Liverpool to exchange young players.  The original alliance was to be with Leicester, but that couldn't be brokered.  There are two strange things about Crewe that you should know though.  They have never had a record made about the club and there is a phenomenon that was known as the "Gresty Clap" - not a nasty sexually transmitted disease, but an appreciation of good play by the Alexandra fans.

FAMOUS PLAYERS : - Bert Swindells, David Platt, Geoff Thomas, Eric Cheets, Bill Lewis, Terry Harkin, Bruce Grobbelaar, Rob Jones.

FAMOUS FANS : - Rob Cieka (Musician - The Boo Radleys), Gwyneth Dunwoody MP.