Chris Long was the unfortunate one to be sacrificed in wake of Billy's unfair dismissal.

Crewe Alexandra manager David Artell said that one of the only downsides of last night’s 1-0 win over Hartlepool in the EFL Cup was that Christopher Long had to be sacrificed in the wake of Billy Sass-Davies’ dismissal after just 12 minutes.

Long was making his Crewe debut after joining us from SPL side Motherwell in the summer but Artell needed to bring on defender Donervon Daniels in a defensive reshuffle at Victoria Park.

Long was the unfortunate one to make way but Crewe battled on to win thanks to Callum Ainley’s winning goal five minutes into the second half.

Artell told the club’s official website: “Chris has only recently come back from self-isolating so he needed minutes and the cup game would have an opportunity for us to do that but it didn’t turn out like that.

“He was the unfortunate consequence of the sending off but we are hoping that he will come back even stronger for Saturday. He will be fine and will bounce back. It was disappointing that we couldn’t get more game time for him but it is what it is.”