David Artell was disappointed as his Crewe Alexandra side slipped to back-to-back defeats with a 1-0 loss at Accrington Stanley. In a game of few chances, Accrington won it thanks to Colby Bishop reacting quickest after Matt Butcher’s direct free-kick was originally saved by Will Jaaskelainen.
Crewe had few chances, with the recalled Chris Porter, having the best of them but those real opportunities didn’t arrive in the second half and a resilient Accrington side saw out the closing stages to claim the three points.
Following the 1-0 defeat at the Wham Stadium, Artell told the club’s official website: “We gifted some of the goals at Portsmouth and I thought we gifted Accrington their goal tonight. I thought Will made a great save as it was heading for the top corner and we didn’t follow it in on the rebound. That is basic defending. You are told to follow in from a free-kick and we didn’t do that. We didn’t help Will out at all and it was a disappointing goal to concede.
“Our response following the goal wasn’t good. We didn’t get going again and that was the most disappointing thing because we had to keep doing what we had been doing, because either side of half time, I thought we were the better side - but we stopped playing and ended up whacking it too much. It is something we will have to work on because the mindset after their goal changed.
"We have to keep on believing, stick to our principles and continue to play our football. We didn’t do that tonight. We were too eager to get the ball forward and didn’t show great quality.
“During our best spells, we actually played some good enough but we didn’t do that enough and play to our strengths enough.
He added: “It was a disappointing way to lose the game because I didn’t think there was anything in it. We had a few chances with Chris (Porter) having the best of them. He has hardly trained and to get 80 minutes out of him was one of the main positives. We were pleased with him and he did the best he could, given the circumstances he had coming into the game. “