Crewe Alexandra boss David Artell said that his team’s excellent first half performance counted for very little as Lincoln City inflicted a heavy 4-1 defeat at Gresty Road. Crewe should have possibly added to Michael Raynes’ 8th minute opener in a dominant first-half but a raise in tempo from the Imps saw the visitors run away with it in the second half.
Artell told the club’s official website: “We didn’t show enough courage to get on the ball and play like we did in the first half. We started trying to whack it up there to Chris (Porter). I felt sorry for him when he came on. There were too many of them who did not want to know in the second half.
“It is irrelevant to me that we played well in the first half or that Dave (Richards) didn’t have too much to do over the 90 minutes. We didn’t get opened up but it is all irrelevant. They have scored four goals and won the game. It doesn’t count for anything.
“Because we dominated the first half and were more than a match for them, they automatically thought that it was a given and that they could go back out there and do the same again. Football doesn’t work like that. It never has worked like that.”