Five of the starting XI, & all five on the bench, were from Lee Bell's U18 squad due to the fixture pile-up - & the team showed grit & determination despite being outplayed for large chunks of the game by their more experienced opponents.

Denilson Carualho & centre-back Ramani Edmonds-Green put the visitors 2-0 ahead, before scholar Joe Lynch side-footed home for Crewe with six minutes left to set-up a tense finale.

Those final stages were the Alex's best of the game, & that pressure almost resulted with a share of the spoils if it wasn't for some last ditch defending from the visitors.

Huddersfield could have been out of sight before they eventually took the lead midway through the second period, striker Frank Mulhern wasting a hat-trick of clear-cut opportunities to make their pressure tell, with Joe Lolley also dancing in from the left & striking an effort off the post just after half-time.

Dave Richards made a smart save one-on-one with Carualho just after the Lolley chance, with Ollie Dyson steering the rebound over the bar with an open goal to aim for.

But to the Terriers' credit, they didn't give up & finally got their goal on 69 minutes, Carualho scampering down the left & thrashing an effort goalwards that took a nick off an Alex defender & flew into the top corner.

It was 2-0 on 80 minutes, Edmonds-Green thumping his header in at the near post from a driven corner-kick to all but seal the points for the visitors.

But with nothing to lose, Crewe began to gain a firmer foothold during the final ten minutes, reducing the deficit with 84 on the clock through Lynch's cushion in at the near post from a low left-wing cross.

Sensing an unlikely draw, Crewe continued to peg Huddersfield back for the final stages with the Terriers clearing a bundled effort from a corner off the line - but they managed to hold on to take the points back to Yorkshire.

Crewe: Richards, Ng, Sass-Davies, Wintle, Dale, Walley, Lynch, Ainley, Finney, Udoh, Reilly