Boss sasy he enjoyed tactical battle with Darren Ferguson

Steve Davis says he enjoyed the tactical battle with Darren Ferguson on Saturday and says that the flexibility of his players to play different systems certainly helped get us over the line. The Crewe boss felt that his side were under pressure when operating in a 4-4-2 system on Saturday and he sacrificed his two wide men Gorge Cooper and Alex Kiwomya to match up Doncaster’s 3-5-2 as they threatened to make their play count.

Steve introduced an extra centre-half in George Ray and evened things up in midfield by bringing on Billy Bingham. Crewe allowed Doncaster back into the game by conceding a soft penalty for shirt pulling but responded in a fantastic way to go up the other end and net a dramatic winner through James Jones.

Steve said: “The two changes were tactical. Doncaster were on top at the time and I didn’t think we would see the game out playing 4-4-2. I thought that if things continued they were going to score and they may have gone on to grab a winner themselves.

“I chose to match them up and both teams were playing 3-5-2 at the end. George (Ray) added that extra height at the back and we went man for man in midfield with Billy coming on. We needed that extra body in there because I thought they were getting stronger in central areas.

“It was matched up all over the pitch and in truth the game could have swung either way at 1-1 but thankfully we got it. We will take it because there have been times this season, especially against Hartlepool when we didn’t get our rewards from the performance.

The boss added: “There have been a few what ifs already this season, so it was important to get a win when we didn’t control the game. It made for a nice change.”