Assistant manager Kenny Lunt praised debutant Donervon Daniels after the defender made a good early impression against Newcastle United’s Under-21s. The summer signing from Luton wen close on a couple of occasions from corners to marking his debut for the club with his first goal but his headers were just unfortunately a tough too high to test Will Brown in the Newcastle goal.

It took a Harry Pickering free-kick to eventually win the game for Crewe in the second half.

Daniels started at right-back but he eventually moved to the centre in the second half with Perry Ng moving across to his more familiar position. Ng had replaced the unfortunate Olly Lancashire after he picked up an injury on 30 minutes.

Lunt said that they chose to play Daniels as a full-back to get more game time into his legs up and down the flank.

Following the deserved 1-0 win, Lunt said: “I thought Don was brilliant for us, he was one of the real positives. We put him in at right-back because we wanted him to run more and get fitter by getting up and down the pitch.

“We switched him over with Perry late on but I think he would have benefitted from the 90 minutes.

“We showed his real quality at times and he was a threat from set-pieces. He will be another one pushing the others for a place and that is what we are going to need throughout the season from everyone.”