Crewe Alexandra boss David Artell says the way his team stood up to Crawley Town’s physical approach on Tuesday night showed how far they have come.

The Alex boss was disappointed that a number of first half challenges went unpunished and he felt the referee was too lenient with his cautions.

Crewe stood up to the roughing up tactics and Artell says the improvement in that aspect of our play was plain to see.

He told crewealex.net: “Perhaps two or three seasons ago, we would have crumbled under that. They came to kick lumps out of us and stop us and some of the things they got away with was embarrassing.

“There was a challenge on Perry (Ng) in the first half that for me was a straight red card. He didn’t even get booked because he let everything go in the first half. The same player has done him again in the second half and my captain has got blood all over him.

“They took him off then before he was sent-off but he should have been off already but the consistency wasn’t there.

“The players handled it really well and the best way to stand up to it, is play football and play the proper way. We did that. We controlled the game and like I said, 2-1 flattered them. We should have been well out of sight but I was pleased that our football came through in the end. We deserved it.”