David Artell says that the second half at Altrincham in our last pre-season friendly has provided the perfect wake-up call to his players. Crewe produced their best football of the summer to blow the home side away inside 20 minutes thanks to goals from Perry Ng, Jordan Bowery and Ryan Wintle but we didn’t re-produce that clinical edge in the second half as Altrincham came more into the contest.
Artell was pleased with that it occurred because he says that league opposition could well have got back into the game after we relaxed.
The Alex boss said: “We really did blow Altrincham away in the first half. We scored three, it could have been even more and we were really pleased with the way we approached it.
“It is a human psychological trait to take your foot off the gas when you are comfortable? Possibly. But you cannot allow the opposition to have hope and optimism by letting them get back into the game.
“Altrincham didn’t take advantage of that in the second half. A league side might well have done.
“We spoke to the players about forgetting about the score and being hard to beat. You can have plenty of the ball and keep possession. It is about doing your jobs properly and continuing to be ruthless in both boxes.
“The players understood that and it was a good lesson.”