Alex boss gives us his reaction from Whaddon Road following first defeat of the season.
Steve Davis was left to rue from individual mistakes as his Crewe side suffered their first league defeat of the season. The Railwaymen were caught out at a training ground corner for the first goal and then a square pass from Danny Hollands was cut out by James Dayton to put Cheltenham 2-0 up inside the first 22 minutes.
Crewe couldn’t find that goal to make a real go of it and afterwards, the Alex boss told the club’s official web-site: "We made a really slow start today and it has cost us. Cheltenham worked very hard to contain us early on and we found it difficult but it was a lack of concentration from the corner that has cost us. They caught us out with that and it is obviously something they have worked on out on the training ground. With big players in the team, we thought they would swing it in but they have gone low to the near post and we have not marked properly. It is the basics of defending to stay with your man and Zoooms has been caught out. It was a lack of concentration.
"The second goal, you cannot do too much about that really. Danny held onto the ball for a bit too long and got caught out. It was a mistake and he has read it and intercepted it to score and that gave us a mountain to climb.
"With the way we were playing, in the 4-4-2 formation I didn't think we had enough control in the game. The wingers were not particularly helping defensively so I chose to change it and get three in midfield. George (Cooper) wasn't happy about it and everyone could see that - but it was purely tactical and I think it improved us.
"We got to half time and I just told them to gamble. We went 4-3-3 and left them further up the pitch and I wanted them to take the game to them a lot more than we did. I think we looked a different side in the second half, we kept the ball better without having that real guile and creativity that we have shown in the previous games this season. Saying that I thought apart from the lack of concentration for the goals we defended reasonably well. I don;t think Ben had a save to make.
"Some of them found it tough physically to go again after Blackburn on Tuesday with the extra time and the fixture schedule we have had. They were tiring and a bit leggy and it is something I have to assess for Tuesday. It is obvious that some of them won't be able to go again and I will make changes in accordance to the rules of the competition.
"We are going to get beat this season. We are not going to think we are arrogant enough to think we are a great side and we are going to win the league by 10, 15 points because we are not. We have lost our first league game of the season and it is how we bounce back from that now which will be important. The players know they have dropped the standard they have set early on this season and they have to pick themselves up and go again."