Despite conceding two goals against our closest rivals Port Vale on Easter Monday, David Artell was quick to praise the defending of his team. Crewe Alexandra were rather unfortunate not to collect all three points from the final derby clash of the season and in the end we had to rely on a superb finish from Charlie Kirk deep into injury time to salvage a point.

The Alex boss was quick to praise his two centre-halves, George Ray and Eddie Nolan for nullifying Port Vale’s threat for much of the game at the Alexandra Stadium.

Our ex-player Tom Pope slotted home a penalty to equalise before half time before Anthony Kay put the Valiants ahead on 70 minutes with an unstoppable screamer from almost 30 yards.

Artell told the club’s official website: “We have conceded a penalty and it was a penalty, so I had no complaints there and then a screamer from 30 yards. So we conceded a worldie and from our own mistake. I don’t think they threatened our goal too much other than that and that is credit to our lads.

“We defended resolutely and headed most things out of our box at set-plays and corners. I thought we defended well as a team and had the thrust and purpose at the other end to make sure we got something from the game.

“I felt that in the first half. We had a lot of the ball in their final third and we just had to be a bit more careful with our final ball. We were just missing out on the little bits and pieces and we spoke about that at half time and encouraged them to keep going.”