Alex boss gives us his post-match reaction from Deepdale

Crewe Alexandra have found it difficult against the top teams in League One away from home this season and so it proved again against Preston North End this afternoon with Joe Garner scoring four times in a 5-1 win.

The Alex had managed to hang in the game after Oliver Turton had slotted home his first goal of the season before the break but after Garner had curled home his hat-trick goal, Crewe were on a damage limited exercise.

After the final whistle, the Alex boss told the club’s official web-site: “I thought we were in the game at 2-1 and I was happy to go in at the interval at 2-1 because we had worked hard to get back into it.

“I thought there wasn’t that much in the game in the opening 25 minutes and our keeper didn’t have too many saves to make but we found ourselves 2-0 down. We gave Garner far too much space for the first goal and then I thought Paul should have come for the second one. The cross had come in from a long way out.

“We then had a goal disallowed to make it 2-2 and it is something I want to see again. The linesman hasn’t given anything because I spoke to him. The referee has disallowed it for whatever reason and maybe the crowd and the reaction of the Preston players has influenced that.

“That was a turning point because we were in the game and although we perhaps never looked like we were good enough to go on and win the game; it could have made it very different.

“The third goal was a killer and then the fourth and fifth goals were mistakes from us. We cannot afford to come to places like Preston and make costly mistakes.

“I thought we did okay for 70 minutes. We were decent on the ball and looked decent going forward. I also thought we were defending reasonably well because our goalkeeper wasn’t making save after save. I think we got wore down in those 20 minutes and form being in a game at 2-1 and having a goal disallowed it quickly ran away from us.

“We have been able to do well against some of the top teams at home this season but we haven’t been able to do that away. Our defensive record for goals at home has been decent but we haven’t mirrored that away from home.

“These are the places we want to come to and have that challenge. It also shows that if we want to be good and ever contest for a top six finish in the future then we have to match teams like Preston and today showed that we have a lot of work to do.”