Crewe Alexandra 0 - 1 Telford

Crewe 0-1 Telford: Mills shocker

Updated: January 3, 2004, 5:05 PM UK

Lee Mills earned Telford a dream 1-0 victory at Crewe, his header with just over a minute gone sending the Conference side into the fourth round of the FA Cup.

The former Port Vale and Bradford striker scored after a corner had been played short to Fitzroy Simpson to notch his 11th goal of the season and set Mick Jones' side on the road to a terrific triumph over their Division One opponents.

• Jones hails his giantkillers

Telford had beaten Tamworth, Crawley and Brentford to reach this stage, hammering the Division Two club 3-0 at home in the previous round, and their performance at Gresty Road fully deserved the reward of further progress.

After being stunned by Mills' rapid strike, Crewe wasted little time as they tried to get back on terms with Dean Ashton mis-hitting a shot over the crossbar when well placed after five minutes.

His fellow frontman Steve Jones should have scored in the 21st minute but his header from Anthony Tonkin's cross was too high.

The visitors were not afraid to get stuck in to try and unsettle their hosts and after 25 minutes they had Matthew Clarke booked for a foul on Luke Varney, who appeared to sustain a serious injury in the clash and had to be replaced by James Robinson.

Mills had a chance to double his and Telford's tally after 31 minutes but fired over and eight minutes later Telford were indebted to goalkeeper Chris MacKenzie for preserving their advantage.

Ashton's shot was tipped round the post by MacKenzie and from Kenny Lunt's corner Michael Higdon headed wide as Telford clung on to their lead at the break.

Crewe almost scored as early in the second half as Telford had in the opening period, Ashton unleashing a fine long-range shot which flew just wide, and after 57 minutes Mills went close again with a powerful volley which just cleared the crossbar.

That was the start of a decent spell for the Bucks, who brought saves from Crewe goalkeeper Clayton Ince through Mills and Sam Ricketts, and Jones sent on veteran Tony Naylor for Christian Moore midway through the second half to boost the level of experience for the closing stages.

It was a talented youngster, however, who almost put them 2-0 up with 16 minutes left as highly-rated Chris Murphy hit the post with an angled shot, while 11 minutes from time MacKenzie had to make another fine stop to deny Ashton from close range.

Higdon had a couple of late attempts at goal but Dario Gradi's men could not find an equaliser and succumbed to one of the shocks of the round.

Jones hails his giantkillers

Telford manager Mick Jones was thrilled after seeing his side add another league scalp following their exploits against Second Division Brentford last month.

He said: 'I'm absolutely delighted. Our main focus is getting promotion from the Conference and we will now have three or four league games in hand but we have to try to win every game and I cannot do anything about the euphoria of the FA Cup.

'We had a gameplan and we put it into execution and we have beaten a very, very good side.

'We tried to let their centre-backs have the ball and put Fitzroy Simpson man to man with Kenny Lunt but they still managed to get the ball out wide and put some excellent crosses in with right foot and left and our defenders had to concentrate fully.

'I told them it was a question of stopping their strikers getting across them and we did that.'

Jones added: 'I thought we may have scored too early but we stuck at it and I'm delighted for the lads, especially young lads like Ricketts and Murphy. I told them they can aspire to playing in Division One for teams like Crewe if they continue to play like that.'

Crewe boss Dario Gradi said: 'Of course it's disappointing but we always knew it might happen.

'We totally dominated the game - partly because of our ability and partly because they scored the goal so early - but we couldn't take our chances. I was concerned that we may be complacent but I didn't think we were.

'No-one likes losing to a non-league team but good luck to Telford.'