Crewe Alex v York City 26-27 Preview - This could get Uggla!

It's a terrible title I know, but just imagine the title read in a thick Yorkshire accent. Anyway, York City are coming to town for the first time in almost 30 years. That's honestly incredible, to think that York fans realistically would need to be in their late 30s to even remember their last visit to Gresty Road. So long has it been that the main stand wasn't even built yet and away fans were housed in the Gresty Road End. Mad. Here is my preview of the Minstermen's long overdue return visit to Gresty Road:

Powerhouses

York spent hard in the summer. Ok, the names weren't quite as flashy as Salford's, but they still signed a lot of quality. Zech Medley, Arthur Read, Harry Boyes Zak Johnson. Giving striker Josh Stones a mega 5 year deal to ward off L1 interest. Add in Ollie Pearce, Alex Hunt, Hiram Boateng, Alex Newby and Mark Kitching and they have assembled a very capable squad for this level. They'll be a real handful in this game and if the Alex don't play well, they could be on the end of a pasting.

Unsettled

However, things aren't all sunshine and rainbows with the Minstermen. Owner Matt Uggla's decision to fire popular title winning manager Stuart Maynard weeks before the season started drew outrage from a lot of the York fanbase, as did hiring Scott Lindsay, who following his promotion with Crawley had struggled at MK Dons and again at Crawley.

Now, Lindsay has quelled some of the noise with 2 wins and a draw from their opening 4 games, but you don't get the sense the seething anger at the sudden managerial change has quite dissipated. Perhaps no better a sign of the clubs current unrest is the decision to let Mark Shelton go out on loan to Grimsby.

Letting a player go on loan to a potential promotion rival is an odd choice in isolation, but when you consider he only signed 3 year deal as a free agent this summer and left 2 months later, it's positively bizarre. Hopefully the Alex can capitalise on the the slight unease which still hovers over the visitors.

Vulnerable

Which brings me on to my next point. Whilst York unsurprisingly look strong in attack, with 8 goals scored through 4 games, in typical Scott Lindsay fashion they look vulnerable at the back. 2 conceded against Bristol Rovers, 3 against Cheltenham, 1 each against Rotherham and Exeter. Lindsay sides always keep the ball well and attack, but they are susceptible to being caught out at the back, as Cheltenham proved on Tuesday. This is something the Alex hopefully can look to exploit.

Lindsay v Crewe

Which brings me on to my next point. Scott Lindsay's record against the Alex is terrible. Through 8 games, he's gone 1-2-5, dating back to 2022 when he was in charge of Swindon. Of course, that solitary win was the play-off final in 23-24. Aside from that though, it has been struggle after struggle in the league for him.

The Alex went 1-0-0 against him when he managed Swindon, 4-1-1 against Crawley and 0-1-0 against MK Dons. Hopefully that means the Alex's management have sussed him and his game plans out and can once again produce some tactical wisdom to pull off another result and keep his poor record going.

Reflection

Let's discuss the 3 possible outcomes from this game. If the Alex win, I think it would make for a very positive week. 4 points from 2 tricky home games, 11 points from a possible 15 overall. What's not to like? I would definitely take that.

A draw would put my feelings somewhere in the middle. A point would make it 3 straight draws and would conversely be 3 games without a win, but also still unbeaten. Not ideal, but again, not too much to complain about all things considered.

However, a defeat would paint their start in a different light for me. They would again go to 3 without a win and would have posted back to back home games without a win. They would probably sit somewhere 12th and 7th, which isn't a disaster, but it would certainly not be ideal given the fixtures they have coming up after this.

As I said at the start of the week, this week had a significant feel to it. 4 points is positive, 2 points is just about ok, but 1 wouldn't be great at all.

Referee Watch

Simon Mather

Ah, a familiar face. He's been one of the Alex's more frequent refs, doing 8 games since November 2021. 6 of those have been home games and the Alex's record in those games is 3-2-1. Hopefully that's a good sign.

2026-27 Record: 4 games(2 League Two, 1 National League, 1 EFL Trophy), 11 yellows

Last Game: Rochdale 3-0 Shrewsbury Town, Tuesday 1st September 2026, League Two, 5 yellows

Crewe Alex Record: 3-2-3, 16 yellows

Injuries/Absences

Crewe Alex

God I'm bored of writing Conor Thomas' name in here, I really am. How does Bell not do a huge sigh whenever Thomas comes up to him complaining of yet another ailment? Will he be fit, won't he? I genuinely couldn't care less at this point. The rest of the team, touch wood, seems ok. Owen Lunt is close it seems, but he won't be available until Colchester at the earliest.

York City

Josh Stones, Zak Johnson, Frankie Maguire, Dipo Akinyemi and Hiram Boateng are all potentially out for York, whilst Jack Hunt is seemingly close to a return.

Team

Bell has an uncomfortable number of decisions to make when picking the team for this game. Not so much in terms of who to pick, but where to play them. By my reckoning, Booth, Billington, Offord, Stephenson, Hutchinson, White, Holicek and March are all locks. You could probably make decent cases for Tabiner and Demetriou(if fit) to start also. That's 10. Who honestly deserves the final spot out of the remaining players? Lankester? Gibson? Agius? McNeill? None of them are in brilliant form.

And what of the system? 3-4-3? 4-4-2? 4-2-3-1? There are several possibilities. Personally, I'm going back to 4-2-3-1. Demetriou, assuming he can play 90 minutes, starts alongside Stephenson in defence. Offord pushes up to join White in midfield. Holicek then moves into the number 10 role. Tabiner moves to the left wing(where both of his assists have come from interestingly) and Lankester starts on the right.

Score Prediction

Tricky. If you tell me the Alex continue from the 2nd half on Tuesday and go on to win 2-1 or 3-2, I'd believe you. If we saw another game similar to Tuesday where both teams have a go, score some goals and split the points, I could see it. Or maybe York capitalise on the shakier parts of the Alex's recent performances and romp to an easy win. Also possible.

I doubt they post the same result and score in back to back games, but for now I'll go with another fence sitting prediction

Crewe Alexandra 2-2 York City