David Artell believes that our 3-0 defeat to Mansfield Town didn’t tell the complete story of the game. Mansfield Town’s clinical finishing was certainly the difference on the night but Crewe did have some good opportunities of their own to stay in the contest. As the gaffer said afterwards ‘goals change games’.
Talking after only our second home defeat of the season, the Crewe boss told crewealex.net: “I actually thought that we were good in possession. We were good on the ball but we got bullied off the ball. I don’t mean physically. What I mean by that is that they got to those second balls; they won more 50/50s.
“We let that happen and that cannot happen because a team like Mansfield Town will punish you and they did.
“We had some good chances in the game and Shaun has missed our best chance of the first half with the score still at 1-0. He has put it wide when you would have backed him to score. Goals change games, but so does the referee missing the head-butt on Charlie Kirk at 1-0. The referee says he has missed it but that is a key moment in the game. It would be 1-0 and they would be down to ten men.
I don’t want to bleat on about the ref but it changes the game.
“The most disappointing thing was that the midfielder has run past his man to score two. He has ghosted off his man and that cannot happen. It happened at Notts County and at Lincoln and now tonight. That is being aware of your job and making sure you do it, because if you don’t then it costs you dearly. It is not difficult, it’s just running with your man and we know Elsnik is a good player. He scored two goals against us last season when he was at Swindon
“We have been good at home this season and I didn’t see it coming if I am honest but we have got to do better.
The boss added: “I never thought we had cracked it because we had gone four games unbeaten. 40 maybe. Not 14 games and certainly not four. Bloody hell, no chance. “