David Artell said his Crewe Alexandra side thoroughly deserved a point to show for their efforts at Bloomfield Road this evening. Artell’s tactical change to introduce fresh legs in attack paid off with one of those substitutes’ Stephen Walker hitting home an 86th minute equaliser.
It was no more than Crewe deserved after starting the better of the two sides in the opening half an hour and then finishing on top too.
Following the 1-1 draw with Blackpool this evening, the gaffer told us: “I thought it was two evenly matched sides and we deserved a point. We should have scored before they did and then ended up conceding from a corner, which is very disappointing I must say.
“I thought we controlled the second half, although we probably didn’t create as many chances but the lads showed great character and we had the better of the last 15 minutes plus the injury time. We finished strongly and we worked on getting players in behind. We had a couple of chances in the first half when we got in behind. The Mika one, when it was disallowed and I’ve not seen that one back yet and Chris had a volley which forced a good save.
“Stephen (Walker) timed his run and it was a good finishim from him. It may have taken a little nick to wrong foot the goalkeeper slightly but he still showed the composure we asked of him. We have asked more of him and he knows that and everyone is delighted for him.
“Credit to him and credit the lads for showing that character to keep plugging away. The challenge is there for Stephen to get in the team, that’s what I told him. I said to him he has more of a chance of getting into our team than Middlesbrough’s at the moment, so that is the challenge.”