Rough justice for City

A farcical end to this game saw Luke Rodgers win a point for Crewe against a City side that had been reduced to nine men with 15 minutes left.

The Sky Blues controlled the game up to that point, their new-found confidence clear for all to see with Don Hutchison revelling in a free role and Michael Doyle also relishing the chance to get further up the park.

Hutchison had opened the scoring after a dangerous cross from McSheffrey and although Crewe looked better after the break, they were being restricted to long-range shots only.

Even Doyle's sending off did not change the control of the game. The midfielder was unhappy at being booked for a challenge but was allowed his say by the referee and should have left it at that. To carry on his dissent less than a minute later (as he presumably did) was stupid in the extreme.

City could still have wrapped up the three points after that, with McSheffrey going close and another chance being diverted onto the woodwork.

Then, just after Stern John had been brought on to make more of the balls City were getting into the box, Robert Page was stretchered off, leaving just nine Sky Blues on the park with all three subs used.

That made the last part of the game virtually attack versus defence, City's cause not helped by an injury to Duffy and a strange display from the referee who erred totally by not letting the Welshman back onto the park after he was taken off through no fault of his own.

The inevitable finally happened when Rodgers looped in a header after Fulop had twice denied Crewe but the applause from the home crowd for their side at the end told its own story.

A difficult choice, Doyle had played well until the sending-off as did Hutchison and Jorgensen.

Richard Duffy though showed real commitment to play until the end despite sustaining a couple of nasty looking knocks.

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