David Artell says that his Crewe Alexandra side showed their professional side to run out comfortable 2-0 winners against a spirited Macclesfield Town side. Crewe broke the deadlock after 11 minutes with Chris Porter slotting home from the penalty spot after Perry Ng was felled close to the by-line by Fraser Horsfall.

One became two before the half time interval with Stephen Walker racing through onto a pass from Charlie Kirk to slot home his first senior goal on 35 minutes.

There were one or two scares for the Alex to deal with in the second half but Will Jaaskelainen was forced into one meaningful save in 90 minutes.

Thhe gaffer was delighted with the clean-sheet, the performance and the three points against our Cheshire neighbours.

Following the 2-0 win at Gresty Road, Artell told the club’s official website: “It you would have offered me 2-0 before the game then I would have snapped your hand off. It was a really professional performance from us and the one criticism is that we should have scored one or two more with the chances we had in the second half. We had three or four shots in a short space of time but we couldn’t score another one.

“We could have been more ruthless but I never thought we were in any danger unless it was a mistake or they hit a wonder goal to get them back in the game.

“We were thoroughly professional today and deserved to be 2-0 up at the interval, especially against the wind, but that disappeared in the second half!

“There is still things to learn from but overall I was pleased with the performance, the clean sheet and the three points. We have bounced back from last week, although I thought the performance was there at Plymouth last week.

“Chris was not affected with what happened last week. It was nice to get a pen and it was definitely a penalty but we had two last week and didn’t get them. There was no change in Chris this week, he got over the miss a minute after he had done it and he is a brilliant professional.

“Stephen (Walker) has hit the ground running and you don’t play for England Under-19s if you are not a good player and he is. I don’t think he could stop running when he scored and got carried away but his booking is what it is!  It was a great finish because those are not easy.

“I said to him you are here to score goals and he has got his first one and he was a major thorn in their side all afternoon.”