David Artell was disappointed that his Crewe Alexandra side couldn’t build on our 4-3 win over Tranmere Rovers in our opening Group D game, as we were well beaten 4-1 by Paul Harsley’s Manchester City's Development Squad.

The Alex conceded two fairly goals and that made it a struggle for his Crewe Alexandra in the tie but a goal from second half substitute Alex Nicholls gave us some hope.

Artell told the club’s official website: “When you give two goals away fairly early then it makes it very difficult regardless of who you are playing. We didn’t play in the first 45 minutes.

“We came out in the second half and had a go. We scored a goal through Alex, Jordan should have scored another and for 15, 20 minutes we looked something like. They should have had a man sent-off and those things change the game, so instead of it being 2-2 against 10 men and getting that initiative back, we started giving the ball away again.

“Our decision making and use of possession has to be better. We need to improve and score some goals. We know that. We need to be as ruthless in our attacking as we have been in our defending. Colchester aside in the league, we have stopped shipping goals.

“We cannot keep playing halves. We played a half against Cheltenham, a half against Port Vale and less than a half tonight. We need to be better over the 90 minutes.

“Don’t get me wrong, they are an excellent side and we won’t come up against a side as good as that in League Two. Even Luton last season who were excellent and Forest Green who always look to pass the ball, they don’t play like that.

He added: “They were excellent with their possession but we have to be better. Our standards have to be higher and get back on track. That work starts tomorrow morning in preparation for Notts County on Saturday.”