Steve Davis says young wide men nearly provide that extra bit of quality.

Steve Davis says that he introduced wide man Ryan Colclough just ten minutes into the second half and then young George Cooper on Saturday because a tight game was crying out for some individuality.

With Crewe struggling to open up a resolute Port Vale back line, Colclough was introduced to try and unlock them. The Stoke-on-Trent born forward certainly injected some purpose into the final third, having a couple of efforts from long range and his trickery won a number of dangerous free-kicks in and around the Port Vale penalty area.

Cooper also conjured one of the best openings of the second half with a skilful turn to take him into the Port Vale penalty area, but the Alex boss was disappointed that the Port Vale goalkeeper Jak Alnwick wasn’t tested more often.

Steve told crewealex.net: “It was becoming hard for us to break Port Vale down so that is why I introduced Ryan early on in the second half and then put George on. The game was crying out for an individual to produce a moment of quality or skill to get that goal.

“I didn’t think there were many of those players on the pitch and that is why I made those changes because Ryan and George can do that for us. They can give us something different and that wasn’t evident from us before they came on.

“Ryan can go past defenders and commit people and George nearly opened them up with a great bit of skill on the edge of the box.

The boss added: “Those who had the shirts had deserved it from the way they had performed in pre-season but there is real competition for places now and everyone has to improve to make sure we win football matches.”