David Artell says it is important for his players to put Tuesday night’s defeat to Mansfield Town into perspective. The Railwaymen were beaten 3-0 by the Stags but Artell believes the scoreline did not reflect the overall performance of his team. 

Now he is looking for a more clinical edge at Northampton Town this weekend. The Crewe boss told us: “We have gone over the game and the performance was okay. It wasn’t brilliant but it was acceptable. We did okay in possession and created enough chances but we did not do enough out of possession.

“We were not aggressive enough and by that I don’t mean fouling them, I mean being competitive, running harder and picking up those second balls. We didn’t do enough to stop them and that is what we will be looking to improve on at Northampton.

“We didn’t stick our chances away on the night and I didn’t think it was a 3-0 game but the fish and chip paper on Wednesday morning said it was 3-0 because it was.

“The team have done well at home and that was the first like from us, so it was a bit of a shock because we didn’t see it coming.

He added: “It is important to keep it in perspective though and not get too downbeat. We didn’t get carried away when we beat Morecambe 6-0 on the opening day of the season and we won’t get carried away the other way after losing one in five games.”