Crewe - The Excel

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Ground Number: 1590
Saturday 3rd October 2026

Crewe 1-4 Allscott Heath

NWCFL D1 South

CREWE FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club was established in 1998 and joined the Mid-Cheshire League upon formation. Starting in Division 2, they won promotion to Division 1 after they finished as runners-up to Trafford Reserves in 2000. They were relegated after finishing bottom of the league in 2005 and would spend two more years in Division 1. In 2007, Crewe joined the Cheshire League, starting in Division 2. By 2012, they had been promoted to Division 1 after finishing as runners-up behind Whaley Bridge. The division was renamed to the Premier Division in 2014, and Crewe recorded their best finish of 4th a year later. Last season, they finished 5th and were accepted into the North West Counties League.

Crewe made their debut in the FA Vase this season and lost 2-0 at Coton Green.  They are a three-star England FA Accredited Community Club that also operates as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. The town of Crewe is more famous for the League 2 side Crewe Alexandra. Located in East Cheshire, the town has a population of 76,500. The town is best known as a large railway junction; for many years, it was a major railway engineering facility for manufacturing and overhauling locomotives, but is now much reduced in size. From 1946 until 2002, it was also the home of Rolls-Royce; the factory now produces Bentley cars. The most famous person from the town is actor Adam Rickitt, who played Nick Tilsley in Coronation Street from 1997 until 2004.

MY VISIT

For this Saturday, I knew that I'd be on my own. Colin and many other hoppers were on the Southern Combination Hop. I might have been tempted, but for scheduling reasons, it didn't work out for me. For some reason, the step 7 game is always scheduled at the standard kickoff time. I am sure there are reasons for this, but for me, I see the less experienced drifting to bigger games and the more experienced hoppers not bothering unless they've not done the other grounds. For me, I'd have put the step 7 in the morning when there were no alternatives. Either way, I prefer to go on public transport on Saturday. Westfield (Sussex), Crowle Colts, Immingham Town, Kinsley Boys, Bovey Tracey, Ilfracombe Town, Beverley Town and Bridport were the favourites. However, bad transport or obscenely overpriced trains put me off. I didn't want to do the NWCFL ideally, seeing as all the grounds will likely be on the hop in the next few years. But with no guarantee that I'll be able to go on the hop, I decided to take a chance. LNWR generally offer great value advances coming from Hemel, and I had used them before. Crewe is one of their main hubs, and so it made sense to go for Crewe v Alscott Heath. A return was secured for £17.60; fantastic value is a rare thing on the railways. I had backed myself into a corner a bit with an 18:12 train back, but at least it meant that I would get back at a reasonable hour.

After my trip to New Milton, I spent the evening at home, happy that I didn't have work in the morning. I chilled at home whilst getting my blog up. After bingeing on clips of the show on YouTube, I listened to Daniel Barnett's LBC Legal Hour on the radio. I then put on YouTube the Minder Episode 'Last Orders at the Winchester', hoping to get screenshots of Southall's old ground. It had a few faces I recognised, including Gavin Richards (Terry Raymond in EastEnders) and Geoffrey Richards (Sylvia 'Bodybag' Hollamby's husband in Bad Girls). I had a few drinks and had a decent night's sleep, waking at 6. With a lack of decent games at a new ground on Sunday, I was more than happy to revisit Uxbridge FC for Southall v Dorking Wanderers in the FA Cup. As well as being an enticing FA Cup tie, the club had made huge efforts to promote the game on social media, plugging it regularly on Twitter. Tickets were well priced at £10 for this Isthmian League South Central (step 4) v National South (step 2) side Dorking Wanderers game. I lazed about for a bit, watching TV until I got dressed and went out at 9. I walked down Wycombe, didn't really buy much and came back on the bus. I had lunch at home before leaving at 1.10. I met Colin, and we were at the ground by 1.40. Entry was £10, a pint of Strongbow was a fiver (with a £2 club glass), and a disappointing sausage and chips was £5. The latter was just greed on my part, but it killed time until kickoff.

Southall had won 2-1 at Deal Town and beaten Cobham by the same scoreline to reach this stage. Their record progress has been the FA Cup 1st Round, but the last time they did that was in 1955. They would be aiming to reach the 3rd Qualifying Round for the first time since 1979 during their brief tenure as Southall & Ealing Borough. Dorking Wanderers were entering the cup at this stage and had reached the 4th Qualifying Round on four occasions; last season was the most recent when they lost 3-2 to Aldershot Town. It turned out to be a cracking game. Dorking Wanderers were showing their class and moving the ball about nicely, as well as retaining possession. It was Southall who had the first real chance of the game, blasting the ball across the face of goal, but no one could get a touch. Dorking took control, and they took the lead in the 27th minute, Rogalski following up a goalkeeper parry. On the half hour, Southall got the equaliser through Makael Scott, fairly similar to the opener. Their lead only lasted a minute, though, as George Nikaj finished from close range to restore Dorking's lead. It was end-to-end stuff, but Dorking had the better chances. Southall were awarded a penalty on the hour, but it was saved well by former Orient keeper Glenn Morris. The hosts got their equaliser on 84 minutes, a mazy run and finish from Taylor Hayles to end an excellent game. The attendance was 606, and after dropping Colin off, I was back home at 6. The rest of Sunday and Monday, and indeed Tuesday, were all nothingness as I was winding down towards going back to work.

It was my 47th visit to Watchet Lane on Tuesday. It's always a pleasure to visit my local club, £8 for a night's entertainment. Sadly, on the night, Brook House were better than Holmer, a very good side, and they won 3-1. Saturday saw my 990th visit to Adams Park. The usual pre-match pints and food preceded Wycombe's fortunate 2-2 draw against Reading, given the balance of play. My final revisit was to Amersham Town on Tuesday; North Greenford thumped them 6-0, and the events on the field merited the scoreline. It was good to catch up with Colin and plan a small trip to Wales in late October. I was thinking of going abroad, but the prices of flights were stupid. That was due to the schools being out for half term, something I'd neglected to check when booking my holiday, basing it entirely on when Wycombe were not at home. Under normal circumstances. I could have changed it, but a quirk of my work's booking system is that it sends a code to your phone. It was tied to my old device that I'd sold two weeks ago. I tried to sort it on a work computer and was presented with a link to a form to reset the said details. Fantastic, I thought, but as soon as I tried to access the form, it asked for the self-same code that I was trying to reset. So I was stuck with my booked holiday for now and vowed to make the best I could of it. Aside from a wasted Monday, I think I've cracked it. I also finalised my plan for this weekend; sadly, the excellent-looking Tom's Tap would have to wait until a future visit.

It was a fairly dull week with work, the most notable thing being when a helpful policeman noticed that one of my lights was out at 4 am, something that was fairly simple to remedy that afternoon. I walked down Wycombe on Friday and had a couple of pints in Wetherspoons before getting the bus back. I spent the evening at home and went to sleep fairly early, not getting much of a lie in as I woke a couple of hours before my alarm. I stayed in bed until my alarm went off before having breakfast and leaving at 7.20. When I got to Hemel, the roads where I usually park for free were rammed, so I used my backup option, paying £3.50. The payment took an age to go through, but it issued a ticket eventually. As my train was leaving, it came through that payment has been denied, mysterious, so I made a note to keep that ticket in case of any problems down the line. My train was on time and nice and peaceful. The only downside was a 34-minute wait in Milton Keynes as I had to change trains. The second train was a few minutes late, but that didn't really bother me as I was looking to kill time in Crewe anyway.

 

I arrived just before 11 and had a look around the market and some shops before heading to my first pub. I was at the Belgian Hops Bar ten minutes before opening. Having been here before, I knew it was decent.  It was a popular place and I followed a large group in just as they were opening the doors. It was all stuff I'd had before, but not for ages. Cherry Chouffe is available in bottles at a few shops, but I always feel that it tastes better on draught. Being imported, it was fairly pricey, so I went for two-thirds for £6.60. It tasted good; I think I'd have to travel to Liverpool or Reading if I wanted the equivalent Delirium Red at the Ship and Mitre or Castle Tap, two equally brilliant pubs. That was good, then it was a pint of Gwynt Y Ddraig Ancient Warrior for my second drink. I was feeling pleasantly steamed after two strong drinks, just enough to take the edge off of life. The second drink was good, having not had it since walking to Oxford to raise money for the Wycombe Wanderers Trust in 2013 at the sadly missed priory. I was pushed for time after stopping back at the market for a Sri Lankan Chicken Devil and Rice, always keen to explore cuisines. Fairly costly at £13, it was nice. From there, it was just under an hour's walk to the Marshfield Bank House Wetherspoons, number 556 for me. A simple place; my chips took less than a minute, my Stowford Press eight minutes. I left at 2.30 and walked the fifteen minutes to the ground. I was there ten minutes before kickoff: a nice welcome, a free badge and £5 entry. The mobile signal claimed data, but there was no sign of it when I tried to check in.

 

Crewe were sitting 16th in the table. After a sticky start, their form had improved. They had won three and lost three of their last six, including a 6-0 thumping of Brereton Social last Saturday. Alscott Heath were in 11th and had won four of their last six. They were on a run of three wins in a row, including a 3-1 win at Market Drayton Town last Saturday. Two very quick goals, both around eight minutes and from close range, kept the scores level at 1-1 It was Ben Summers for Allscott Heath and Kyle Vickers for Crewe. On 24 minutes, it was 2-1 to Allscott Heath, an excellent free kick from Carl Rogers finding the corner of the net from twenty yards out. On half time, a thumping Edan Sears shot from the edge of the area made it 3-1 to Allscott Heath. A fair reflection, with Crewe restricted to chances on the break. It was all Crewe at the start of the second half; they kept the visitors pinned back in their own half but didn't create much. The hosts did have the ball in the net ten minutes from time, but it was disallowed for an infringement. On 85 minutes, Crewe got a penalty, but the tame effort was well saved by the visitors' keeper. Crewe still pushed, but to no avail. Allscott Heath made it 4-1 on the break in the 89th minute, a calm and composed finish from Jack Davies. I was pretty much sober now, so the walk back to the station via Farmfoods for some Irn-Bru dragged a bit. I saw some Crewe fans whose side had beaten Bristol Rovers 3-1, so the town seemed in a good mood. My train was waiting there for me when I got to platform 11 at 6 pm, having walked 23k steps and nearly ten miles on the day.

THE GROUND

THE EXCEL is very much a work in progress, but has a decent amount of potential. It is a 3G cage with only one side and one end available at the moment. There are two areas of cover but no seated stand at the moment. You can usually get a decent view of the action. The bar and cafe are outside the ground; these offer a reasonable range at fair prices. Otherwise, a standard Wetherspoons called the Marshfield Bank House is 15 minutes walk away, with other pubs the same distance in the other direction. There is plenty of parking. The ground is 2.5 miles from the station; when I checked, buses didn't really save much time but are available.