David Artell and his coaching staff have been working on more effective ways to break down the opposition after failing to score against Cambridge United on Tuesday night. The Alex boss believes his side became too one-dimensional in the second half and that we played a bit into their hands as we went in search of an equaliser.

Crewe dominated the majority of the possession in the second half, but didn’t test the U’s goalkeeper David Forde on enough occasions for Artell’s liking. The Railwaymen produced an endless stream of crosses into the Cambridge box but couldn't find that killer ball to get back on level terms.

Artell told crewealex.net: “We will go through clips of the game and show the players what they did well and what they didn’t do so well. I thought we played well and dominated the second half. Now when you dominate a game for 45 minutes like we did, then you need to be getting something from it.

“We will go through situations and ask the players if they could have done something different? It will be reflective feedback and a chance for them to put their opinions over. I won’t knock what they tried on Tuesday because they gave it everything they had.

“We were just not threatening enough and they will learn from it. They have to find the solutions for themselves on the pitch when a team comes with two banks of four and defend their box like Cambridge did.

“We just had to improve the quality in the final third on Tuesday night and we were certainly not a million miles away.”