Crewe Alexandra boss David Artell believes his side thoroughly deserved to record their first win of the season against Bolton Wanderers last night. Crewe won their opening group game in the Checkatrade Trophy thanks to Mikael Mandron’s late penalty winner and Artell says he was pleased with the night’s work at the University of Bolton Stadium.
Following the 3-2 win over the Trotters, Artell told the club’s official website: “We deserved to win the game and I don’t think there would be many disagreeing with that.
“Some of our play was terrific. Did we threaten the goal as much as we should have with the possession we had and from the positions we got ourselves into? Then possibly not but we know there are areas to improve.
“We have to remember that there were a lot of factors that come into it. Josh (Lundstram) was making his debut. Travis (Johnson) and Billy (Sass-Davies) have only played a handful of games at first-team level, Omar Beckles has trained once with us and we had two players in our forward line who only joined us this summer.
“When you consider that and the fact that Bolton only made four changes from the side that played at the weekend then it was a really good away performance from us.
“We will learn a lot but like I say some of the football was really good from us. We have scored three and conceded two goals again but overall we deserved to win the game and I was pleased that we did.”