Dario Gradi admitted that his youngsters Shaun Miller and Byron Moore failed to have the right impact against Rochdale on Saturday - but says that the front-two were starved of quality service as well.

Dario paired the two Academy graduates together for the first-time after losing his leading scorer Calvin Zola in the opening couple of minutes thanks to a hamstring strain. Without target man Zola, Crewe had to re-jig their tactics slightly and hit the feet of the front two instead of aiming for their heads. Saying that Moore did reasonably well with the flick-on's because he is deceptively good in the air.

Following the 2-0 defeat at Rochdale, boss Dario Gradi told us: "The front two did struggle to make a mark on the game and I cannot remember either of them threatening the goal too often. That is what we need them to do.

"They found it difficult but in fairness to them the service up to them wasn't particularly good either.

"They certainly didn't show the same quality as Rochdale's front two and that is what they have got to aim for.

"Joel (Grant) came on and nearly got us a goal which would have made it interesting going into the last 10 minutes but we didn't show enough up front to trouble their goalkeeper on too many occasions."