Nathan Wood marked his Crewe Alexandra debut at Swindon on Saturday and David Artell was pleased with the performance of the 18-year-old loan player from Middlesbrough.

Crewe ended up losing 2-1 at the County Ground thanks to Scott Twine’s injury time winner. The England Under-19 International is now hoping to retain his place for the visit of Accrington Stanley this evening.

The Alex boss said of the young centre-half: “Nathan was fine and was relatively mistake free. The only thing we will have to work on is his free-kicks, he hit a couple of diagonals into the centre circle but we know he is a good player.

“He has played in the Championship for Middlesbrough and has played for various age groups for England, so we know what a good player he is.

“He came up against an experienced player in Pitman and a runner in Garrick, who is on loan from Swansea. Hope also came on, so he came up against three decent strikers there and he was fine.”