Gaffer pleased with clean-sheet and point at promotion rivals FGR

Crewe Alexandra boss David Artell praised his side’s performance after they collected a deserved a clean-sheet and point at rivals Forest Green Rovers tonight. The Railwaymen had the best two chances in a tight affair with Chris Porter chipping a first half effort just wide and then applying a touch to Ryan Wintle’s terrific strike on 54 minutes which shook the inside of the post.

Crewe defended superbly well, restricting the home side to half chances and Artell hailed the display as our ‘best away performance of the season.’

Following the goalless draw at the New Lawn, the Alex boss said: “It was a good point and I was pleased with the performance and the clean-sheet. We deserved the clean-sheet and if there was any team going to win it then it was us. I think it was a good advert for League Two and we probably shaded it with the two good chances we had.

“Chris has chipped the goalkeeper in the first half and it has just gone wide and he then got a slight touch onto Ryan’s (Wintle) shot and it hit the inside of the post.

“It was a terrific point for us against a good side. I would say they are they are probably the best side we have played this season over 90 minutes. Exeter were very good in the 45 minutes when we played them but we were very good in the second half.

“They set-up to let us have the ball and tried to hit us more on the counter-attack but I think we restricted their genuine chances. Mark (Cooper) would have looked at us and been wary of our attacking threat and they set-up to stop us and they will say that it worked because we haven’t scored.

“On other night, we may have scored one or both of the chances we had and then that would have been an even better result – but I cannot fault our lads. They put a real shift in against the team that are second and going well. We have come here and probably shaded it overall and I’m pleased with the performance.”