David Artell says the 6-0 defeat to Colchester was 'the worst he has ever felt' as a football manager. Crewe were hammered by a clinical Colchester side and Artell was honest and open in his post-match interview.

Artell told the club's official website: "It was embarrassing and I am not going to dress anything up. No-one saw it coming but forget about the running around or commitment. If you do not do your jobs at set pieces and set up right then you are going to have a performance like that. It doesn’t matter who you play or in what division, you have to do your jobs properly and we are two goals down inside eight minutes because we didn’t do it. It was completely unacceptable.

"I wouldn’t mind but we do the work. We have gone over it time and again and knew what they were about. We gave up, most of them did, and that is unacceptable for me. You have to be brutally honest and we let players waltz past us for some of the goals. We have given them another one from our own corner. It was like here you go, counter attack and have another one.

"They have a good side but we didn’t half help them this evening. Dickenson is a decent player but we made him look like Messi tonight. He is not. 

"We were awful and we will sort the fans out. The players will pay out of their own pockets for their match tickets because they deserve great credit for coming down here to support us. We will refund them because they do not deserve to pay for that. It isn’t a great gesture, it’s the minimum requirement.

"They will be in tomorrow morning regardless of what time we get back, 3am whatever. I will be the first at the gate and they cannot be a minute late.

"That peformance is unacceptable in every way and if I could have subbed nine of them at half-time I would of. Harry Pickering is 19 years old, he has given everything he had and gave it a real good go and has left the pitch upset because he is injured and cannot carrry on, that is what is about. Some of the others can learn from him.

The boss added: "It is the worst I've ever felt as a manager by a long way."