Ben Strevens’ penalty with 15 minutes remaining was the difference after sub keeper Danjiel Nizic had felled Ross Lafayette.

Ben Garratt had been questionably sent off on the hour mark, but Davis refused to use the referee’s performance as an excuse for the defeat.

Steve said: “I was very hopeful that we could produce a performance and a result that would take us through to the next round, but we fell well short of that with the performance we put in, which was disappointing.

“There was a real lack of quality in the game with a lot of young players very nervous. We were terrific last week and this week we produced a real poor performance.

“We started quite well and had a couple of good chances where we should’ve scored. We knew it was going to be tight but in the end their experienced players proved to be a bit more street-wise than we did.

“A lot of their things went unpunished. Their lad kicked out at Brad in the first half which should’ve been a penalty and a red card. Then with the Garratt sending off, Ben Nugent was offering cover so he perhaps should’ve given a yellow card instead of red.

“I’m not using the refereeing decisions as an excuse. I’ll look at the game and look at the areas I thought we got it wrong and work on that next week.”

See Steve's full reaction HERE on Crewe Alex Player HD