Boss says he was not surprised by Pickering's stunning free-kick because he is out there most days practising his technique.

David Artell has told the club’s official website that he does not instruct his players to take free-kicks but encourages them to do so for their own careers.

Harry Pickering was rewarded for religiously practising his free-kicks out on the training ground by transferring that into the winning goal at the Keepmoat Stadium on Saturday. The left-back curled a home a superb shot with 20 minutes remaining to give Crewe a deserved three points against an in-form Doncaster Rovers side.

Artell said of his free-kick taker: “I don’t tell the players that they have to practice their free-kicks. I don’t say that you, Harry Pickering, Perry Ng or Callum Ainley or whoever have to practice them. I just say ‘you should put some time in’ because it is a great opportunity for you to score a nice goal, a skilful goal.

“They are the ones and others, it must be said, who devote some time to practicing. It only takes 15 minutes after training, just enough so they don’t risk getting injured doing it.

The boss added: “Whenever I look over, it is usually those three out there practicing them, so Harry’s goal came as no surprise to me. He wants to be out there, working on his technique and he once again showed terrific execution from what is a difficult skill.”