David Artell has told the club’s official web-site that no places were secure after we lost 6-0 to Oxford United at the weekend. The Alex boss made six changes to the side for the visit of Portsmouth last night and he revealed afterwards that only captain Harry Pickering, Luke Murphy and Ryan Wintle had done enough against the U’s to have retained their place.

Midfielder Wintle missed out against Pompey after suffering a slight niggle and goalkeeper Will Jaaskelainen retained his place. The young Finn produced a top level performance to make sure we collected a clean-sheet and a point when saving a John Marquis penalty. He also made two outstanding saves in either half as he deservedly obtained his shut-out.

The Alex boss told crewealex.net: “When a defeat like that occurs like it did against Oxford then no place is secure.

“Ryan Wintle would have played (against Portsmouth) because he did okay on Saturday but he had a bit of a niggle.

“Only Murph and Pixie came out of Saturday with anything of note and other than them, the rest were open to be dropped.

“We spoke about ourselves and not Portsmouth too much and what we could get from each individual and as a collective.

He added: “It was important we got back to basics and showed that grit, determination and resilience to have a go and then not get beat.

“That was a result built on that grit and when you hold Portsmouth to a draw then that is a relative success.”