David Artell says Crewe have to be on it from first minute until the last to keep on improving.
David Artell says it is important to take the positives from Tuesday night’s second half performance at Oxford into our second home game of the season against Accrington Stanley on Saturday.
Crewe were beaten 1-0 at the Kassam Stadium thanks to James Henry’s 33rd minute penalty but the Railwaymen can take heart that we had enough possession and created enough good chances to have possibly even have won the game.
We didn’t and Artell is not hiding behind that fact, but he was boosted by his side’s display, especially when you consider that his squad was greatly affected by illness in the preparation.
Ahead of this weekend’s fixture against Accrington, the manager told us: “The challenge for us to keep on improving. We will do the work out on the training ground to develop those relationships. It has been difficult with the players we have lost and having to bring new ones in. These things can take time and then we had to deal with Covid issues in pre-season and then what happened in the build-up to the game on Tuesday with illness.
“It does affect the planning and we haven’t had much luck with that but when players cannot play for whatever reason, it gives the others an opportunity. I’ve also said that we will need them all at some stage and that they will have to be ready. Regan (Griffiths) came off the bench on Tuesday and nearly got us a point with his first touch.
“We were all disappointed not to have got something from the game. The players worked hard to get more of a control in the game and we finished the game strongly. We had three or four really good chances to score but we didn’t, but we have got to take that reaction into Saturday.”