Crewe boss reveals why he elected not to make a change at Oakwell.

Crewe Alexandra boss Steve Davis has revealed that he didn’t want to disrupt the organisation of his team with a second half substitute. The Alex boss only had young players to turn to with Toby Mullarkey only handed a shirt number on Friday and Callum Saunders prepared to fly back from International duty with the Wales Under-21s to take his place on the bench at Oakwell.

There was also a shock inclusion for midfielder James Jones, who has not played since having surgery on the shoulder injury he picked up in pre-season. Jones was added to make the numbers up with as many as 10 players missing through injury or International commitments.

Steve told the club’s official web-site: “I didn’t make a change in the second half because I didn’t want to disrupt the team. We had worked hard on that we wanted to do towards the end of the week and I just thought that if we made a change it could disrupt that.

“I chose to keep the same 11 on and not risk the change. I had George Cooper on the bench and I left him because Lauri (Dalla Valle) is disciplined in his defending on that side.

“James Jones shouldn’t have been on the bench really but we were short of numbers. Toby Mullarkey got a shirt number yesterday because we are short of defensive cover and Callum flew back from Denmark to be involved.

Steve added: “They were mostly of our own, with Ryan Wintle just back from injury as well, so it was tough with the squad we had but they came through and I was pleased for them all.”