Boss annoyed with Luton's winning goal at the weekend on two counts.

David Artell believes that his Crewe side ‘shot themselves in the foot’ against league leaders Luton Town. The Alex went down 2-1 against Nathan Jones’ Hatters but the Crewe boss was angered by the visitors’ second goal as Elliott Lee was offside and clearly interfering with David Richards’ view when Luke Berry drove home.

An honest Artell knows that our decision making in trying to play out from the back proved costly in the build-up but it was annoyed that the officials failed to spot a player stood directly in front of our goalkeeper when Berry shot.

Artell said: “We shot ourselves in the foot by giving the ball away in a dangerous area but a bad decision has cost us. The assistant has to get that right because Lee is offside and interfering with our goalkeepers’ vision. If that is not interfering with play then I really do not know what is?

“It gave us a mountain to climb and for a while we lost our shape. We gave the ball away too much and you cannot give a team like Luton with the players they have, chances like that.

“Saying that I didn’t think there was a lot in the game. They looked a threat on the break when we gave the ball away high up the pitch but they didn’t open us up too many times. I thought when our shape was right we were difficult to break down.

“There were positives. We have worked hard on defending on our box and they did well at set-plays, corners and free-kicks. They have done a lot of work on that but our decision making on the football had to be better.”