Davis says players proved they can handle pressure situation

Steve Davis says his Crewe Alexandra side have once again raised their bar of performance after scoring three goals for the first time this season against Sheffield United. The Alex boss was pleased with our clinical finishing and the clean-sheet in a pressure situation. A defeat would have seen Nigel Clough’s Blades leapfrog us in the League One table and back in the drop zone.

Two goals from Chuks Aneke in the first half and a sealer from Byron Moore in stoppage time saw the Alex record back-to-back home wins for the first time this season.

Ahead of our weekend trip to Bradford City, the Alex boss told crewealex.net: “We managed to score three goals at home and it could have been more.

“I was pleased with the way we played because there was a lot of pressure on both sides to get a result. We knew that we had lost it we would have been back in the bottom four. It was a game that we couldn’t afford to lose and we did a lot better than that.

“I thought our players dealt with the situation and produced an all-round good performance. They have raised the bar of the performance once again and they were all good. It was difficult to pick a man-of the-match, of course Chuks (Aneke) got it because of his goals and rightly so, but there were a lot of contenders and that is what we want.

He added: “We defended well and restricted them to long range efforts. I think the fans can see the improvement we have made over the last few weeks and I always thought that this group would improve.”