Crewe Alexandra boss David Artell admitted that Saturday’s overall performance against Bury was probably worse than the 6-0 drubbing we suffered at Colchester back in August.

A Charlie Kirk goal in the first half gave us something to hold on to and mainly due to some outstanding saves from Ben Garratt and the likes of George Ray and Perry Ng putting their bodies on the line, we were lucky to escape with a point.

A close range finish from Nicky Maynard 10 minutes into the second half levelled things up and Bury looked the more likely side to score again.

Artell was left hugely disappointed with the display at Gresty Road. He said: “It was our worst performance of the season, and I include Colchester in that.

"We were not very good, from start to finish. Sometimes you don’t get what you deserve in football, and last week we didn’t get what we deserved at Lincoln because we deserved a least a point.

"We didn’t deserve a point, that’s the truth and there’s no point sugar-coating it.

“I expected them to go out and increase the tempo in the second half but we didn’t do that. We didn’t pass the ball well at all.  The fact is, if we’d have kept the ball anywhere near we have been doing, we’d have been fine.

"It’s always going to be tough when that many players are off their game.

The Crewe boss added: "The honest answer is we could have brought off five or six of them.”