Sunday Mercury Big Match Report: Crewe 2 Wolves 1

Jul 17 2011 by Bill Howell, Sunday Mercury

ROGER Johnson put in an assured performance in his first Wolves appearance but could do nothing to prevent his new side losing to Crewe at Gresty Road.

The towering defender wore the captain’s armband as he got 45 minutes under his belt in the disappointing defeat.

Johnson displayed the dominant skills which made Mick McCarthy splash out £6.4million on his services, but a lacklustre performance from his teammates saw him end up on the losing side.

Wolves bossed possession for large spells of the game but lacked a cutting edge up front and were undone by a late Anthoni Sarcevic goal which cancelled out Kevin Doyle’s equaliser. Shaun Miller had opened the scoring in the first half and Sarcevic’s screamer wrapped up a deserved pre-season win for the home side.

The opening exchanges were what could be expected from a pre-season friendly – slow, steady and not much entertainment.

Wolves looked comfortable in possession but created very little and, in fact, it was the hosts who threatened first.

With 11 minutes on the clock, Luke Murphy picked up the ball on the edge of the area and saw a gap in Wayne Hennessey’s goal, but his curling top-corner effort sailed over the bar. Lee Bell then fired a stinging drive just wide of the Welsh stopper minutes later and Miller spun away from Christophe Berra but blazed high and wide from outside the box.

It took the visitors 18 minutes to register an effort on goal when Nenad Milijas lashed a low drive inches wide of Steve Phillips in the Crewe goal.

The League Two side were clearly not fazed about facing Premier League opposition and looked dangerous on the attack.

On 24 minutes Danny Shelley shot just wide of Hennessey’s left hand post after a well-worked move from the creative midfield.