Boss says club put a tough week behind us with positive Covid-19 tests to really do the business against Wigan.

David Artell believes that his Crewe Alexandra side are continuing to improve with each game in League One.

After a slow start to the game this afternoon, Artell’s side went on to win comfortably in the end with goals from Luke Offord, Harry Pickering and Mikael Mandron. It was no more than the Railwaymen deserved after a really polished performance.

Following the 3-0 win over the Latics, the boss said: “I thought it was a really professional performance from us and I would say that was for the whole 90 minutes, but we started slowly. We didn’t start well but that didn’t result in them having too many chances either.

“We managed to get our noses in front after missing two really great chances. We should have scored both from within their six yard box, although their goalkeeper deserved some credit too.

“We have worked on Luke (Offord) getting in those positions and it was a fantastic ball from Callum (Ainley). We wanted Luke to get in behind and the ball was that good, it was difficult for him to miss.

“The second goal is an outrageous piece of skill from Charlie (Kirk) and then Callum produced an equally outrageous moment of skill for the third goal. That is the work we do with them when they come here at 6, 7 years old. We encourage those types of players to show skill like that. It might drive you round the bend 8 times out of ten but if they produce two moments of skill like they did today to create and score goals then we will always encourage it here.

“The only criticism we had at half-time was that the game should have been done and dusted. We could have scored four or five in that first half and if we can become more ruthless then someone is going to get a battering.

“We have asked the players to improve with each game and the players are doing that. We have made a step up from the MK Dons, scored three goals and kept a clean-sheet. It shows that the players are taking things on board and taking the lead.

On Ainley, the gaffer said: “I thought Callum was Man-of-the-Match today. He has created two goals and was involved in the second one because if you watch it back, he went and stood in the number 10 position, we wanted him to go into and that created the space for Pixie to come in and score.

“When he produces a performance like that, it doesn’t really matter where he plays in the team because we all know what he has in his locker.”