David Artell could not hide his disappointment after his Crewe side let three points slip through their fingers at Moss Rose. His captain, George Ray, looked to have sealed another dramatic winner for the Alex when he headed home a corner deep into stoppage time but Crewe failed to see out the final 50 seconds that was remaining on the clock.

A spirited Macclesfield, fighting for their lives at the bottom of the table, hit back through Reece Cole with literally four seconds left! As Artell stressed afterwards, the 3-3 draw feels like a defeat.

David told the club’s official website: “When you score three goals away from home you should win the game. We have gifted them three goals because I don’t think they have created a chance of their own.

“The first goal for them was a muddle between the centre-half and the goalkeeper. The second goal shouldn’t happen in the game nowadays. It was a push on the goalkeeper and the referee told me that he was fouled after the ball was in the net and he is a Championship referee.

“The third one should have been collected by Ben. It has bounced out and the ball has been kept alive and I think I counted six mistakes in that goal that resulted in the equaliser. There was 50 seconds left when George Ray scored and we should have seen the game out.

“We haven’t looked like doing that lately and it is not something we have done a lot this season but we have done it today. Because of the mistakes we have made we got what we deserved and it feels like a defeat.

“If you would have said we would have taken a point before the game I would have said no, so to concede with four seconds left to cost us the three points is ridiculous. Scoring three goals away from home should have been enough.

“Perhaps we should have scored more of our chances and their goalkeeper has made some good saves to keep them in it but three should have been enough today. We have been let down by two or three who were four out of ten. If they had been a six or seven then we would have won the game comfortably.

“They are saying the same thing in the dressing room that three goals should have been enough and we should have seen the game out with seconds left, there were one or two apologies going on as well.

“We just needed that professionalism and calmness to see the game out. We said that whatever happens, if we stay calm then we see the game out and win the game but we panicked too many times today and that has been unlike us during our run.

He added: “There are positives. We remain unbeaten. It is one defeat in eight and if you would have offered me that on Christmas Day I would snapped your hand off but it feels like a loss today.”