That critical time of the season is fast approaching for Ipswich Town and they probably needed few reminders of the side who gatecrashed the promotion party last time around.

Dario Gradi's Crewe are widely regarded as the side who wrecked the Premiership dream in the closing stages of last year's assault on the top flight.

But if Town needed a reference to back up their claim for membership of the elite club then perhaps they can point to their performance at the Alexandra Stadium.

Crewe will forever be etched in Town fans' memory as the team who threw an almighty spanner in the works of their automatic promotion drive last season.

The 2-1 defeat at Portman Road towards the end of the campaign effectively consigned them to a third and predictably unsuccessful stab at the play-offs.

But at the end of their latest attempt to scramble out of the First Division, Town might yet look back on this result as the catalyst for their elevation to the top flight.

Gradi's side had already made their mark on Town earlier in the season when they dumped them out of the Worthington Cup, but there were to be no more surprises this time round.

Manchester City's failure to beat Huddersfield Town on Friday night enabled the Blues to haul themselves into the top two for the first time since October and the feeling now is there is no looking back.

The vibes emanating from the Town camp suggest Joe Royle and his City side will need to come up with something special if they are to recapture one of the automatic promotion spots.

But after surrendering bragging rights at the top of the table it is now up to City to chase an Ipswich side who are proving relentless in their efforts to rub shoulders with the very best.

They even overcame the unexpected loss of Marcus Stewart just hours before the game to extend their unbeaten league run to 17 games with goals from Jamie Clapham and Jermaine Wright.

Stewart, scorer of two goals in his first two games for the club, went down with a stomach bug in the team hotel and was forced out of the line-up.

Town missed his effectiveness up front but, in the end, it need not have mattered. George Burley switched the system to 4-4-2 to combat the threat of Crewe's three-pronged strikeforce and the players were quick to adapt.

They took the lead when Clapham's ambitous long-range strike flew into the net in the 60th minute but just four minutes later the advantage had been surrendered when Paul Tait headed home.

Cue forgotten man Jermaine Wright. The former Crewe midfielder has been warming the substitutes' bench for much of the season but he returned to haunt his former club with his first goal for Town.

Wright came on for the ineffective Richard Naylor at half-time but it took him until the final minute to remind his former teammates of the reason why Town paid £500,000 to secure him last summer.

There didn't seem to be any danger when the ball was cleared out of the Crewe defence in the 89th minute but Wright had other ideas and his 30-yard strike flew into the net.

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