David Artell described our defeat at Swindon as the ‘worst result of the season’ after his Crewe Alexandra side conceded a stoppage time goal to lose 2-1 at the County Ground. Crewe had enough chances to have left Wiltshire with all three points but after failing to take them, we were punished by the Swindon substitute Scott Twine converting a late rebound to win the game for John Sherdian’s side.

Talking after the 2-1 defeat, a disappointed Artell said: “It is a bitter pill to swallow that one. It is the worst result of the season for us because we had enough chances to have won 4-1, 5-1 and I don’t think anyone could have complained but goals change games and we were not clinical enough in both boxes.

“I would have been disappointed to have drawn the game, never mind lose but we only have ourselves to blame really. Mikael held his hands up afterwards and shouldered some of the responsibility and it is good of him to do that. He doesn’t have to because we win and lose as a team. He knows he had good chances today but I am not going to come out and throw him under the bus, no chance. That isn’t us and we lose as a collective. Defeats hurt all of us.

“The performance was okay apart from not scoring the goals and when you don’t take them then you leave yourself wide open for something like this to happen.

He added: “The play-offs are not beyond us, but we have to be more clinical in both boxes and not go away from what makes us successful in the first place.”