David Artell firmly believes that his Crewe Alexandra side have proved that we can stand up to the physical tactics of opponents in League Two. Crewe have for many years being labelled as having a soft underbelly and that we could be bullied into submission but Artell says that it is something we have looked to address since he took over from Steve Davis in January 2017.
Crewe stood up well to league leaders Lincoln City on Saturday, going down 1-0 to a close range effort from substitute Tom Pett – but having also won 4-1 at Sincil Bank last season, the Alex boss feels that we are showing that we cannot be bullied as much.
Crewe host another of the promotion favourites, Bury this weekend aiming to continue our impressive home form. The Alex have conceded just one goal and suffered just one defeat at Gresty Road.
Artell told crewealex.net: "We've had to address that because the game has gone that way. League Two has always been like that and the game has gone more like that than ever. That's the evolution of football.
"You look at our team now and I don't think we are particulalrly small and I don't think we're particularly going to get bullied.
"We have a lot of 18-19-20 year olds in the team so sometimes they might be naive and unable to stop momentum, we know and accept that.
"But all I know is when people say 'come and bully Crewe' that we can stand up to it. We've got the players capable of not being affected by it, but we are reliant on other people doing their job as well."