Steve hurt by lack of fight
Steve Davis was critical of his team's drive as they were heavily beaten 5-0 at Swindon this afternoon. The Alex boss apologised to the travelling Alex fans after he suffered the heaviest defeat of his Crewe career, but he hopes the defeat will provide a timely reality check.
After suffering the 5-0 loss, Steve told crewealex.net: "It hurts and it hurts because the least we can expect is for the players to roll their sleeves up and fight and we didn’t do that today. When you have a few doing okay and the rest not playing well then you are in trouble and we are in trouble at the moment.
"They worked hard all week and I was really looking to see how they do against a side who like to play football as well, so I was disappointed and frustrated to get a performance I really didn’t expect.
"I thought we were doing okay for the first 20 minutes and other than when Ranger got in when Mark slipped they didn’t have a chance. We had a couple of half chances as well. Max got in but just lacked the confidence to take it first time and if we had been able to get in at 1-1 like we should have then it could have been different.
"As it was they have had a bit of fortune to go in at the break 2-0 up and even at half-time we were on to them to start well and try and get that first goal because we were still in it, so to then concede the goal we did a minute into the second half killed us. It was our own mistake again.
"This is a big reality check for us. We had the same last season at Brentford when we lost 5-1, so it is all about the way we respond. We have had a long chat in the dressing room and told them some home truths because the most disappointing thing is that we played as individuals and didn’t play as a team.
"We are only Luke Murphy short from last season and perhaps some of the new players have to find their way, but that doesn’t mean we should be brittle and make it easy for teams to get through us.
He added: "Swindon are a very good side, with good players, but I doubt they will have an easier game than they have had here this afternoon. It was embarrassing for me and it was embarrassing for the supporters who were here today. I can only apologise to them but in times like these, it is important that we all stick together because we can only turn things around together."