Boss felt his side deserved something from the game after rallying second half display.
David Artell felt his Crewe Alexandra side did enough to have got something out of tonight’s game at Oxford United. The Alex conjured up three good openings in the second half at the Kassam Stadium but couldn’t find that equaliser that our effort deserved.
Crewe lost 1-0 thanks to Henry’s well taken penalty in the first half and Crewe were left to rue those missed late chances for Callum Ainley, Regan Griffiths and Rio Adebisi.
Artell though was rightly proud of his players after what had been another difficult 48 hours after players and staff, were ruled out through illness.
The Alex boss told the club’s official website: “It has been another tough 48 hours for us with everything we have had to deal with. In fact it has been a ridiculous tough last few weeks. Covid goes and then we get hit by this. I am beginning to think I did something to a nun in a previous life.
“The last 48 hours has been no different and we have a number of players and staff suffering, so I am proud of how the players performed. I know we lost the game 1-0 and it’s a results business and all that but that was distinctively an improvement from Saturday (at Portsmouth).
“I didn’t think we deserved to lose tonight but we did but I told the players afterwards that if they play like they did in the second half, especially in the last half an hour, and we improve slightly then we will be fine.
“Terell (Thomas) played his first game for the club and said that once those relationships develop and we improve, then we will be a good side and a match for anyone in this league. That is him saying that not me.
“I thought Luke Offord was the best player on the pitch tonight and Terell wasn’t far behind him. Ben (Knight) has trained with us once, Terell 3 times, so we will put the work in and show them what we want from them.
“For Ben to come away to Oxford and play like he did for us in that second half, he will be absolutely fine for us. He will be more than fine because he is a good young player. He will get to know about us and us about him.
He added: “I am proud of the players tonight because they could have gone the other way and use what has happened over the last 48 hours. I am just disappointed for them because they deserved to get something out of the game, even to have won it with the chances we had in the final 20 minutes.”