David Artell believes that the relentlessness of the hectic fixture list may just have caught up with some of his players at the Stadium of Light. Crewe were beaten 1-0 by an impressive Sunderland side and although the Railwaymen gave their all to remain in the contest, we didn’t create many clear cut opportunities and the Sunderland goalkeeper Lee Burge was hardly troubled on his way to a clean-sheet.

The Crewe boss says that the demands placed on his players and the fact that they have been unable to train consistently over the last two weeks may have contributed to a testing night in the North East.

Artell told crewealex.net: “It may have been a game too many for some of them in the end. Sunderland had a lot of the possession and we made things hard for ourselves, especially in the first half. It was the same against Blackpool and with us unable to get those successive training days in, it made it even tougher.

“That is not a criticism of them because our players have been excellent for us.

“I will put my arm around them, as much as I can with the Covid restrictions, we will rest and recovery and look forward to Doncaster on Saturday. “