Steve Davis left shocked by defensive horror show

After losing our third league game of the new season, the Alex boss said: "It was really poor defending again, that’s nine in three now. We couldn’t cope with the quickness of their two up there. Our two centre halves didn’t cope at all and our full-backs found it difficult.

Steve Davis could not hide his disappointment or indeed his surprise as his Crewe Alexandra side were beaten 5-2 by newly-promoted Rochdale. The Alex only had themselves to blame at times, gift wrapping goals like it was Christmas morning.



The gaffer did save some praise for two-goal Marcus Haber: “Marcus’ involvement in the game was good. He played the full 90, took his goals well and he was one of the few plus points tonight.”

“We defended well at Barnsley and kept a clean sheet, we’ve let a couple in in each league game I know, but we didn’t see five coming against Rochdale on a Tuesday night, none of us did, it was very unexpected.

“It was just errors. We couldn’t cope with their movement, the gap between the back and midfield was too big. The young lads didn’t cope well enough. Greg and George are learning, but they need to respond from this.

“But at the other end it all went wrong. Every time they attacked it looked like they were going to score. That’s how it was for me on the side, and I’m sure that’s how it was for the supporters in the stands too.

“It may sound stupid but I actually think going forward we were really good. We scored two, we could’ve scored more – their keeper pulled off two great saves. In a forward sense we were decent.