Defender says Alex can take heart from display at Goldsands

Adam Dugdale says Crewe Alexandra can take some real positives from our match at Bournemouth last weekend, despite going down 3-1 to a Brett Pitman hat-trick. The Alex dressing room were left bemused and annoyed by the award of two penalties, which Pitman duly converted.

Dugdale was adjudged to have tripped Marc Pugh for the first award at the Goldsands Stadium, a decision that baffled him and his team-mates. That was followed up with a similar incident in the second half to see the Cherries go 3-1 ahead.

Duggy told Crewe Alex Player: “We were all disappointed to lose the game because we thought we played well enough to have got something from the game. We know the referees have a tough job, but we didn’t agree with his decision to award them two penalties.

“At the time I didn’t think it was a penalty and couldn’t believe it when he gave it. We thought the assistant referee had flagged for offside and we were preparing for the free-kick.

“We thought the second one was just as harsh and felt hard done by on the day. The positive thing was the way we responded. We put them on the back foot and had a lot of possession, especially in the first half and they are the in-form team in the league.

“They came out at us in the second half and were good to be fair but we rode an early storm and we thought we were really in with a chance when Ryan (Colclough) scored, so to be penalised again was hard to take.

Duggs added “We thought we could push on and perhaps get a draw and perhaps it was a tough decision for the referee, but in my opinion I didn’t think either of them were penalties at the time or when I’ve seen them again.”

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