Steve Davis talks after miserable JPT defeat

Steve Davis gave a brutal and honest assessment when emerging from the dressing room after he saw his Crewe Alexandra side lose their sixth straight game at the hands of Rochdale in the JPT.

Matt Done, Peter Vincenti and Calvin Andrew goals secured a 3-0 victory for the Dale to knock out the 2013 winners of the Football League Trophy.

The manager has now fully admitted that it is time to act to bring some help to the nucleus of his young side.

Speaking after the match, Davis said: “I’m stuck for words. If I can get the backing and get some players in then I’m going to do that because they need some help and we’ll struggle with that group.
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“We had some missing tonight through international call-ups and injuries and also three of the subs played yesterday, so I was reluctant to use the subs if I had to. Thierry and Callum played all the game for U21’s at Bristol and George played 75 minutes. I know the crowd were frustrated I didn’t make changes earlier; I had to protect those younger ones.

“Some of them are trying their hardest but they’re finding it hard to be big and brave enough when things aren’t going so well. It’s hard for the young players, but they’ve got to be men.

“We went through it last season, and we’re going through it this season – there’s a common denominator there and it has become very difficult.

“As we did last season when we got some reinforcements in, if I do that I’ll have to get some out because of the money side of it, but it’s time to act.

“They had more possession and controlled more. We had little spells where we tried to do something, but we never really looked dangerous and never had anything up there."