David Artell says his players were dealt a harsh lesson when slipping to a 3-0 defeat at Crawley Town at the weekend. Crewe were on the receiving end of a bizarre result after creating numerous chances to be out of sight by half-time.

Crewe found the Crawley goalkeeper Glenn Morris in inspirational form and that gave his side the platform to go on and win the game 3-0 in extraordinary circumstances.

Following the head scratching defeat in Sussex, David told us: “We put on a terrific performance on Saturday and the players played well. They did almost everything we asked of them but we couldn’t put the ball in the net. That isn’t just about the strikers either, it is a collective responsibility and on Saturday, Kirk, Ainley and the two centre-midfielders also had great chances.

“If we play like that every week them I am sure we will win more games than we lost that is for sure. We know we have to start sticking the ball in the net and become more ruthless because we will create chances, we have the players here to create a lot of chances.

“It has to be lesson learnt from Saturday because we cannot afford to dominate a game like that and get nothing from it. To lose it 1-0 would have been hugely disappointing, so to lose it 3-0 was horrific.

He added: “We have to make sure that doesn’t happen again like that.”