Crewe Alexandra manager Dario Gradi is hoping that Saturday's 3-2 defeat at Cheltenham Town will serve as a stiff learning curve for his centre-halves. Dario has been delighted with the improvement made at the back over the pre-season and into the new season against Hereford and Derby County in the Carling Cup, but the experienced Alex boss felt his centre-halves were hussled into mistakes at Cheltenham.
Crewe conceded far too many free-kicks and Dario says his players would have learnt a lot from the experience, especially with the way the Robins started the game at Whaddon Road.
Dario told crewealex.net: "I didn't think the centre-halves played as well as they have been at Cheltenham but you have to give credit to the way the Cheltenham forward players played. I thought they were lively and caused us some problems, especially in the first half an hour.
"It would have been a good experience for Patrick because he will know he conceded a lot of free-kicks on the day.
"Patrick has done very well for us and I have been pleased with him. He had a really good pre-season and has improved from one of my first games back in charge when he spent most of the game on his backside at Bradford.
"I left him out of the team after that and was willing to let him leave, but he stuck at it and won his place back. He certainly doesn't go to ground as much now.
Dario added: "If we can get him doing the things he is good at then he has shown what a good defender he could become. He has gone away from the Cheltenham game and gone through the DVD with Steve (Davis), so hopefully he will learn a few things and push on from there."
