Crewe Alexandra boss David Artell says it is the easy option to ‘blame the big two’ up front for us not scoring against Port Vale at the weekend. The Railwaymen suffered their first home defeat of the season after Leon Legge headed home the only goal of the game with 15 minutes remaining.

Jordan Bowery and Chris Porter had our best chance of the derby game in the first half with that man Legge clearing Porter’s follow up effort from Bowery's shot off the line.

Artell was annoyed that we hit too many deep crosses in the second half that left Bowery and Porter operating on scraps against Legge and Nathan Smith.

The Crewe boss told us: “It is easy to blame the two big ones for the defeat but it wasn’t their fault. They didn’t whack it to themselves in that second half. They didn’t get the service.

“They did in the first half and they linked up well. They passed the ball to each other and they looked decent. In the second half we didn’t play the ball into their feet. We whacked it and it is unacceptable.

“Chris Porter didn’t give the ball away in the second half, if you take out the aerial duals he was involved with. He didn’t lose it because we didn’t play the ball into his feet at all. That is a worrying statistic and we need to address that. The players need to know that.

He added: “You cannot blame the front two. There would not have been those complaints at half time when we came in on top but just because we have two strikers up there who are over six foot doesn’t mean we take the easy option and just whack it.”