Harry Pickering told the club’s official website that the Alex had to show a different side to their play to make sure we came away from the Jonny Rocks Stadium with at least a point.

Crewe had found themselves in a good position with 20 minutes to go, but we lost our captain Perry Ng due to a second booking and had to see out the remaining period to make sure we didn’t suffer a defeat on the road.

A Chris Porter equaliser on the stroke of half time was no more than the Alex deserved going into the interval and we were certainly on top in terms of possession when Ng was dismissed.

Crewe dug in though, remained resolute in our defending and made sure we picked up a decent away point from a Cheltenham side that are also going well.

Pickering, 20, believes that is was important we demonstrated our battling qualities to get over the line.

The Academy graduate told ifollow: "If you look at the past few years we haven't had as many wins as we'd have liked, but we are progressing, we are maturing as players.

"If we were losing games it wouldn't be a true reflection of what we are as a squad. But it's a great feeling when you win and keep winning, it is infectious, and it helps you when things get tough.

"In some ways it's a good point, but in others it's not the result we hoped for. But we could look back at the end of the season and see it was a good point at Cheltenham.

"To come away from home and go down to 10 men and still get a point shows the character we have got in the squad.

"It wasn't the greatest of starts for us but we bounced back, and we looked like we were going to win the game. Then obviously it changed with the sending off, but we dug in and got the result.

He added: "Last season I don't think we'd have got what we did, so we are improving. They were pressing when we went down to 10 men but we stuck in there when the ball was coming into the box."