David Artell says that he substituted Callum Ainley at half-time purely for tactical reasons. Ainley was replaced by Jordan Bowery at the half-time interval with the score still goalless but Artell says it was important to get another central striker on the pitch to help Chris Porter.

Crewe lost 2-1 to the current league leaders and Artell says that the change had to be made to give us more of a chance in the game.

The boss explained to the club’s official website: “We started with one up and two wide and the conditions were not helping. It was difficult for Chris up there on his own with a gale force wind. We wanted to put one more in the middle of the pitch.

“I think it helped us and allowed us to get up the pitch better. It was goalless at the time of the change and hindsight is a wonderful thing but I felt what we did at half-time made us stronger and they couldn’t exploit us as much.

He added: “Saying that, we didn’t make good decisions in possession of the football. We have to be better on the ball. Maybe the conditions played a part in that but we can be better.”