A late injury to Perry Ng at Bolton Wanderers saw youngster Travis Johnson thrust into cup action once again. With the skipper off the pitch, the 20-year-old stepped up to demonstrate his maturity to help Crewe see out the final 10 plus minutes.
Crewe deservedly won the FA Cup first round tie 3-2 thanks to goals from Mikael Mandron, Oli Finney and Charlie Kirk.
Johnson marked his 6th first-team appearance at the University of Bolton Stadium on Saturday and the right-back will be hoping for another opportunity against Shrewsbury Town in the newly named Papa John’s Trophy.
David Artell was suitably impressed with Johnson’s game management at Bolton at the weekend. The boss said: “I thought Trav was good. He has earned his stripes by playing in other cup games and he didn’t let us down with his performance again.
“The likelihood is that he will be involved again on Tuesday night (against Shrewsbury) and he is ready. He is coming to the final part of his development where he will be in and around the first-team and now it is up to him to force his way into the team.
“People look at Will (Jaaskelainen) and Luke (Offord) and think they have come from nowhere but they haven’t. They have been out on loan and earned their stripes that way. They have developed behind the scenes if you like and have had that quick shock that comes with men’s football at other clubs.
He added: “That is the name of the game for us and we have the likes of Joe (Robbins) and Billy (Sass-Davies) out at Altrincham at the moment playing in the National League.”