Crewe boss believes that long campaign has caught up with a few of his players.

David Artell has admitted that the season may have caught up with a few of his players physically. The Alex boss says it is difficult to solve why his side can produce such a spirited performance to fight back twice against Notts County and then fold with a whimper against Yeovil three days later over the Easter programme.

The Crewe boss admits that the long campaign may be beginning to catch up with a few of his young players, especially as he tried to select the same XI as much as possible when the team has been successful.

The Crewe manager told crewealex.net: “We played well against a strong Notts County side on Friday. They were big, strong and were effective in what they did. We had to fight back twice to get something from the game.

“Then we didn’t perform to that level at Yeovil a few days later. It is not easy to get to the bottom of it. It is that consistency that every manager, at every level is looking for.

“I do thing that the season has been tough physically for some of them. I think that it has caught up with some of them. A number of them have not played before Christmas and they have had to play 15, 16, 17 games and then it is game 18 and their body is struggling. They are getting knocks and aching but that is where we are and they have to get used to it. It is part and parcel of football and you have to play with knocks a lot of the time.

David added: “We have given them some downtime, some rest and hopefully we will be firing on all cylinders again.”