David Artell pleased with clean-sheets and praises the team's great effort

David Artell says he is delighted with three clean-sheets from the club’s last five games, but the Crewe Alexandra boss states that the entire team deserve the plaudits for the improvement.

Artell, a centre-half himself during his playing days, takes great pride in his side’s defensive resilience and he believes that the decision making at the back coupled with the work ethic has led to the improvement.

David told crewealex.net: “I have been pleased with the clean-sheets, we have managed to keep out Portsmouth and Crawley at their own grounds and we restricted Colchester to only a handful of chances and their best two came in injury time when they had nothing to lose.

“I know that the goalkeeper and the defenders do get the praise for a clean-sheet and rightly so, but it is about the whole team. It is about 11 lads working their socks off to make sure the ball doesn’t go in our net. That message is getting over to them and being understood.

“All of them are instrumental in helping us achieve a clean-sheet. George Cooper was instrumental in helping us do that against Crawley. He was terrific for us. He didn’t score and was disappointed not to score but he ran his socks off to help the team. That is what being a team player is all about.

He added: “It is vital if you want to be successful. When you have someone as talented as George Cooper running about coupled with the skill he has, then you have some player. When you have three of them up there pressurizing and working their socks off then it doesn’t half make it easier to defend.”