David Artell was pleased with our work off the ball this afternoon but not so pleased with what we did in possession. The Crewe boss was pleased with our first away point of the season, a clean-sheet and our defensive display and says that we shaded it in terms of chances at Whaddon Road.
Following a goalless draw with Mike Duff’s Cheltenham, the Alex boss told crewealex.net: “Out of possession we were very good. I thought we defended really well. They had a couple of decent chances, Ben (Garratt) made a good save at the end of the first half and they had one blocked close to our line but I thought we had the better of the chances overall.
“We had a few headers and Ryan (Wintle) had a great chance to win it at the end. It was a great cross from Kirky and he has put it on a plate for him but you also have to give their goalkeeper great credit because he got out to him quickly. Ryan was probably too close and couldn’t really miss him.
“I thought Kirk was the best player on the pitch by a mile and Corey Whelan was terrific for us. What a debut that young lad has had for us.
“We had our moments but on too many occasions we just whacked it and I was disappointed with that. I would think the ball has probably gone off to hospital because it has been whacked that many times.
“There were positives though and I am content because it is never easy coming here, especially when they have a new manager and looking for a bounce. It is a point away from home, a clean sheet and a good defensive performance from us, but we needed to play a bit more. If we had found a blue shirt more often then I am sure we would have created even more chances.
“We have managed to have ground out a point and that is a step in the right direction because we are all Crewe fans and we know that in the past we would have conceded a goal with 15 minutes left and lost the game here.
The boss added: “We didn’t manage to do that at Newport or Carlisle, so it’s a step forward today. Now we have to go and build on that against Port Vale on Saturday.”