CreweGround: Alexandra Stadium (Gresty Road) Visits: 1 Date: 29th December 2019 Match: Crewe - Scunthorpe 3-1 (League 2) Attendance: 4 578 My ambition when it comes to groundhopping in England is of course to do The 92. Visiting the new Spurs stadium in August I am missing Crewe, Salford and Leyton Orient. Once fixtures were published I was disappointed to find out Salford and Leyton Orient played away from home on both 29 December and 1 January. Crewe on the other hand were at home on both dates and I decided to visit the Alexandra Stadium for Crewe v Scunthorpe. Being next to the station the Alexandra Stadium (formerly Gresty Road) is a ground I have seen many times during my travels across the UK. From my base in Manchester the journey to Crewe was around 35 minutes. Once upon arrival I made the short walk to the ground to pick up my ticket. After a few exterior pictures I then headed to the local pub where I had a drink while watching the Old Firm derby on a big screen. Gresty Road was opened in 1906 and in the 1990s the ground was completely rebuilt with four new stands. The by far biggest stand is the South Stand which has a capacity of 6,809. The glory years for Crewe were between 1997 and 2006 when the club, with the exception of 2002/3, played in the second tier of the English football. Since 2016 the club is playing in League 2 though. My seat was in row S of the main stand and I was surrounded by mostly season ticket holders. Crewe are doing well in League 2 this season and are aiming for promotion. Scunthorpe are mid-table and were probably hoping for an upset against the high-flying Crewe team. Crewe were by far the better team though and by half-time they were deservedly 2-0 up. Crewe then had several chances to kill the game with a third goal. They somehow missed all those chances and against the run of play Scunthorpe, much to the delight of the 350 away fans, pulled a goal back. It was suddenly a bit nervous at the Alexandra Stadium but Crewe quickly scored again to make it 3-1 and that was to be final score. At 17.16 my train departed Crewe station and 15.52 I was back at Piccadilly. I quickly found a taxi which brought me to the Etihad Stadium for my second match of the day. In the fourth minute I was in my seat to watch Manchester C host Sheffield U. This was to be yet another Premiership game with VAR in focus. View from the train station Gresty Road Rear of the North Stand ![]() Rear of the South Stand Welcome to the Alexandra Stadium Fans outside the ground Fans outside the ground West Stand North Stand East Stand South Stand Players and officials entering the field Kick-off West Stand Crewe fans View of play Scunthorpe fans View of play East Stand Pano Pano |