Crewe Alexandra boss David Artell says he learnt a lot about his players, after his side were beaten 4-2 by Nantwich Town.

On Tuesday evening, the Alex squad were split in two. One group were away to Nantwich, with the other group playing away at Witton Albion. Despite the disappointing score line, the Alex boss says the performance did please him from a coaching perspective.

“We learnt lots of things. I thought [the performance] was really good, from a football coaching point of view. You learn a lot about your players, and you often learn more in defeats. Not that’s important, we lose here every year, so it’s nothing new. It’s fine, though, if we get promoted again next year because we lost at Nantwich, then we’ll take that kind of thing.

“I’m making a joke of it, but what we’re trying to do, they still haven’t grasped yet. There’s lots to work from, and we’ll keep at it.”

Although the final result might be disappointing, the boss believes there is a lot to build on from the performance, adding: “You could see glimmers of what we’ve tried to do. Different people in different positions. That gives you hope.

“Did it happen often enough? It didn’t. We made silly mistakes too often, and that was the disappointing thing. But, overall, there was those glimmers that make you think that there’s something to be worked on. We go from there.”

“I think all the goals game from a similar thread. We gave the ball away, counter attack, goal. If we’re trying to play the right way, then you have to accept that to a certain degree. You can’t accept four very similar goals.

“We’re trying to get them to think in a certain way, and change the way we play slightly. All in all, I think it was a good night from a manager’s point of view, even if the players didn’t execute certain stuff as well as you’d hope.”