Crewe Alexandra boss David Artell says there was an improvement in our attacking play against League One side Shrewsbury Town - but we still fell short of obtaining the win we needed to progress to the knockout stages of the Checkatrade Trophy.

Overall, Crewe had enough chances to have won the tie but we couldn’t take more than the one Jordan Bowery did with 10 minutes left to give ourselves a chance of progressing from Group D.

Crewe lost 2-1 and that the Shrews win the Group ahead of Manchester City’s Under-21s.

Following our fourth successive defeat in all competitions, David said: "Four games ago we were four unbeaten, now we have lost four on the spin. But it's a time for being positive and brave, because we're not far off.

"I can say whatever I want, but at the end of the day they scored two and we scored one, and that's all the matters.

"It's a results-based business and we have got to get some results.

"I want them to think about winning. Just be a winner, be better than your opposite number, be effective.

"Then all the other stuff, plaudits, money, promotions, that all comes as a by-product."

The Alex boss was pleased though that we managed to score our first goal after drawing blanks in the previous three games against Mansfield, Northampton and Carlisle in the FA Cup.

David told us: “We scored a really good goal and it showed how easy it can be when you make the right decisions in the final third. It was pass, pass, pass, a low cross to find Jordan and a pass into the net.

“It was a well worked goal and good finish and we know they can do it. It is the right decisions that matter and it doesn’t always have to be looking for that difficult pass.

“I actually thought we looked more threatening and had chances but again we were not clinical enough in front of goal. We had plenty of opportunities to score more than the one goal we did.”