City smash six as Crewe go off the rails

What a day at Ninian Park. 5 goals in 26 second half minutes destroyed Crewe and helped City move into 7th place with 22 points from 14 games.

At half time I was a little concerned that we'd allowed Crewe back into a game that we were dominating early on.

City had taken the lead when Michael Ricketts found himself through on goal in the 18th minute and he cooly slotted the ball past the approaching keeper. The game was looking good for City to push on and establish a bigger lead but it swung Crewe's way. The visitors found more time and space with the ball and made City pay with a headed goal by Steve Forster from a 31st minute corner.

Loovens gets on pitch treatment

Any other efforts Crewe had were off target but I did feel they had more control on the game than we should have allowed. Jason Koumas fired a free kick at the keeper and a thunderbolt volley from Michael Ricketts was blocked en route to goal.

1 - 1 at half time then was probably a fair reflection of the way the half was split between the teams. City lost Glenn Loovens at half time after he appeared to hurt his back during the first half. Neil Cox came on for the second half.

What no one could have imagined was the 26 minute spell that City would produce in the second half. It was devastating.

On 48 mins Cameron Jerome was tormenting on the edge of the Crewe box, he laid the ball off to Michael Rickets in a wide position. His cross was one of the best I've seen, it fell perfectly onto Joe Ledley's head at the far post and the young City lad (who could have been in France with Wales U19's) headed back across goal into the far corner to make it 2 - 1.

Crewe threw themselves as us, there was a great scramble near the city goal and then a moment that turned the game. Crewe striker Mark Rivers sprung the offside trap. He was clean through on Neil Alexander but a super save with his foot from Neil kept the ball out and the rebounding header that came in was claimed by the keeper. That would have made it 2 - 2 and who knows what might have happened. Instead City attacked immediately and Kevin Cooper was put through on goal and he made no mistake showing Rivers how do do it. 3 - 1 and City were rampant. That was Cooper's first goal for the club.

Michael Ricketts went off for Alan Lee and just a couple of minutes later Lee went down in the box and won a penalty. Darren Purse stepped up to send the keeper the wrong way and make it 4 - 1.

If that wasn't good enough it only took a minute for it to be 5 - 1. Cameron Jerome waltzed through this time and his effort was deflected into the net.

What was probably the goal of the game came from Jason Koumas. City's in form midfielder made it three goals in the three games and 5 in total this season when he made a super run from midfield, he let fly with a shot from the left hand side of the box over the keeper into the far corner.

It was quite something. The last 4 goals came in just 14 minutes. City still pushed forward and could have had more. Stats show we had 22 efforts on goal.

7 points from 9 in the last week is a great return and now we can have a small break from League action with Wednesday night's Carling Cup tie with Leicester.

Then we have a testing away trip to League leaders Sheffield Utd next Saturday followed on Tuesday with a 265 mile journey to Norwich.

Excellent entertainment today. Dave Jones is doing a remarkable job and congratulations to him and the players.