David Artell appreciates that there were plenty of positives to take out of our 2-1 win away at Morecambe that saw us more from the bottom of the League One table, but he admits that taking the lead through Luke Murphy’s wonderful goal affected us in a negative way for the next 10 minutes.

The Crewe Alexandra boss felt that going ahead in the game made some of the players, a touch anxious for a short period and that a mistake could have led the Shrimpers back into the game. As it was, Crewe recovered their composure to see out the game really well, including a bizarre eight minutes of stoppage time!

Artell told the club’s official website: “There was a period after he scored the second goal where it affected a few of them. Perhaps they were not used to being ahead in an away game, in such an important game for both clubs, and it did affect some.

“There was that element of the performance where we need to be better and control the game better. It got scrappy and whilst I never thought they were going to score unless we made a mistake that was the time where you thought we might make one.

“They came through it and I thought we ended the game quite comfortably, considering there was just the one goal in it.”