Marked for Francis Leather
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Francis Leather damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Crewe Alexandra are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tommi O'Reilly falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match26 Sep 2026
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Reece Hutchinson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
Francis Leather damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match16 Sep 2026
0‑1 against Blackpool, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Match19 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Crewe Alexandra are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tommi O'Reilly was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Crewe Alexandra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josh Stephenson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Louis Moult, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 7.48 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Crewe Alexandra had the best player on the pitch.
Match19 Sep 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Cambridge United came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Francis Leather damages knee ligaments — 35 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 35 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Calum Agius, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.27
A mark of 8.27 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Crewe Alexandra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reece Hutchinson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
7 new faces, and Crewe Alexandra are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Omar Bogle, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Francis Leather damages knee ligaments — 42 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 42 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tommi O'Reilly was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Crewe Alexandra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josh Stephenson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Conor Thomas gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 7.29 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Crewe Alexandra had the best player on the pitch.