Willand vs Dorchester.
Something strange has been going on in CW2 this week.
It started with what seemed like an innocuous tweet showing two young Crewe fans, a club legend and mascot Gresty the Lion. I wasn’t sure what the point was and I wasn’t sure it mattered; A call to arms for the new campaign perhaps? A last push for season ticket sales? The social media team running out of fresh ideas? Any of these explanations were feasible and I would have quickly continued my doom scrolling had it not been for two things. The first was that the club name didn’t look right.
A quick check and my worst fears were realised. It wasn’t Gresty the Lion who stood with Dean Ashton. It was Aleksandr the Meerkat. Somehow we’d become ‘Crewe Aleksandr’ and I hadn’t seen it coming.
A quick check and it transpired that this was a temporary rebranding, a high-profile PR stunt orchestrated to launch Compare the Market as an official partner of the English Football League. The genius marketing department must have decided to take the week off, and the apprentices had chosen The Railwaymen in what they saw as natural, humorous wordplay.
But it wasn’t the act itself that got my attention (although the influence on business on sports teams will no doubt be revisited before the end of the season), but rather a tweet I found celebrating it ‘I’m on board with anything that involves Crewe’s greatest ever striker’
I was fortunate enough to see Dean Ashton play a number of games, but he wasn’t the greatest striker I’d seen at Crewe. Not by quite some distance.
And that got me thinking. Modern fans naturally point to players from their generation as the greatest of all time. Liverpool fans today may argue Salah over Dalglish, Spurs fans Kane over Hoddle and Stoke fans…..Stoke fans probably need to sit down.
It’s worth looking at these comparisons objectively. Dean Ashton was a force of nature. An elite academy graduate who combined brute strength with lethal finishing that you could argue kept Crewe punching above their weight in the Championship. His 74 goals and subsequent £3 million move to the Premier League represent the absolute pinnacle of what the Dario Gradi blueprint aimed to produce.
But as we know, football didn’t begin in the 21st century. Purely on the numbers, one could argue that the accolade of Crewe’s greatest striker belongs to Bert Swindells. Between 1927 and 1937, Swindells banged in an astonishing 128 goals—a record that has stood entirely unchallenged for nearly a century. Ashton had the modern pedigree, but Swindells owns the history books.
But football isn’t objective. The best striker isn’t the player that scored the most goals, produced the most assists or commanded the biggest transfer fees. It’s the player that made the greatest impression on you.
For me that player is Tony Naylor.
Signed in 1990 from Non-League Droylseden, the same year that I moved to Cheshire from the mean street of South Warwickshire. As a player, Naylor wasn’t a physical target man that Division Four fans were used to; he was a consummate finisher, exceptionally light on his feet, and possessed an ability to weave through tight spaces inside the box that brought entire stadiums alive.
His legend was forged when he scored 5 goals against Colchester in 1993, and by the time he left for the best team in Staffordshire a year later, he had scored 66 goals in 152 appearances, cementing his name in the Crewe history books.
A legend? Maybe.
Known by Millennials? Probably not.
Remembered by anyone who saw him play? Without a doubt.
Tony Naylor made me fall in love with my club, brought me to my feet whenever they got the ball, and whose name I chanted throughout the game ‘Tony. Tony, Tony. Tony Tony. Tony, Tony Naylor’
For Willand’s next batch of future favourites, the first home league test of the season came from the formidable foe that was Dorchester. Relegated from the Southern Premier League last season the Magpies were looking to bounce straight back and there were some familiar faces amongst their ranks, including Jack Windsor, Matt Buse and Tom Purrington, who have all plied their trade locally over the last few seasons.
For Willand it was Jack Furzer taking temporary charge for the day, and the starting line-up included Ayunga and Williams after impressive starts to the campaign.
Willand came into the game looking for their 3rd victory of the season, having seen off Wellington and Falmouth, but it was Dorchester who started the brightest, with the visitors twice coming close in the opening stages, blazing over early before rattling the crossbar from a corner on 16 minutes. Rovers weathered the pressure, with Seedhouse producing an important block and steadfast defending from the back line, and it was the home team who took the lead six minutes before the break.
Zac Williams rose highest to meet a cross after good work down the right, and his towering header gave Willand a 1-0 advantage at half-time, arguably against the run of play.
Half Time – Willand 1 – Dorchester 0
Dorchester responded strongly after the restart with Seedhouse again producing a crucial block to preserve the lead, but the visitors levelled on 53 minutes following what appeared to be a scuffed effort that went in off the woodwork. Just three minutes later, Dorchester completed the turnaround to go 2-1 ahead, Burrows roaming free on the edge of the 18 yard line, before firing past Seedhouse.
Harvey Dorothy was introduced on the hour mark and nearly made an immediate impact, while Baxter tested the goalkeeper from distance as Rovers searched for an equaliser but it was Dorchester who struck again five minutes from time to extend their lead to 3-1. Substitute Samadi was played in beyond the Willand defence, making no mistake with his drilled effort.
Rovers continued to push and were rewarded deep into stoppage time when Josh Ford headed superbly into the top corner to reduce the deficit but Dorchester held firm through the remaining moments, securing a 3-2 victory despite Willand’s late rally.
Furzer and the management team will lament some soft goals conceded, but ultimately the better team won on the day, and it was already clear to the Willand faithful that the team that Ben Watson is putting together should be capable of pushing on as the season continues.
Next up on that journey is an FA Cup trip to Brixham. All Willand need to do is beat the lower-league opposition, build on a promising start to the season and maintain that form for the next nine months.
Simples. Right?
Full Time – Willand 2 – Dorchester 3
