David Artell says his Crewe Alexandra side have to do the ‘horrible side’ of the game better when we are not playing to the standard.

The Alex boss was frustrated with our first half showing at Northampton on Saturday and although we improved in the second period, we still went down 2-0 at the Sixfields Stadium due to our own mistakes.

Artell believes that when things are not going our way in a scrappy affair, we have to show more resilience.

The Crewe boss told us: “When we played as poorly as we did in the first half at Northampton we have to the other side of the game well. What I mean by that is the horrible stuff and making sure we stay in the game.

“We gave away a horrible goal. There were four mistakes in the build up to the goal and the referee choosing to ignore the fourth official when he had seen a foul didn’t help but we didn’t defend it well at all after that.

“We then made another mistake towards the end to let them in again and that decided the game.

The boss added: “I thought we had enough of the ball to create better chances. It was just about us being more careful in possession and making sure that final pass or cross was as good as it could be. There were times when we didn’t take enough care. It was those crucial little things that we need to improve on.”