Billy Sass-Davies handled the first red card of his young career extremely well according to boss David Artell. The Crewe centre-half was unfortunate that the referee did not spot the first pull on his arm or that the linesman who did admit to seeing it failed to alert the man in the middle. It resulted in Sass-Davies committing a professional foul and seeing red after just 12 minutes at Hartlepool United.

To say he was disappointed in the dressing room was an understatement, but his Alex team-mates came through for him winning the cup tie 1-0 thanks to Callum Ainley’e excellent strike five minutes into the second half.

Sass-Davies will be unavailable for the second round tie at Leeds and will evidently learn from the experience according to his manager.

David told the club’s official website: “Billy handled it (the red card) really well. He came in and apologised at the end and the response of the players to him was really good. They knew he had been unlucky, a bit naïve but the officials ducked out of the decision for me. He was pulled first.

“I spoke to him a little bit on my own and he knows. He will learn from it and I will keep giving him chances. It was youthful naivety as a young centre-half.

“Now is he ready at the moment? We will have to find out? If he isn’t and needs more time and perhaps another loan move then we will see.

“I have had a number of League Two and National League clubs on about him all summer asking if we were letting him out again and I said ‘no, because he is going to play some games here.’ That hasn’t changed and I will continue to give him opportunities.”