David Artell has told the club’s official website that one poor performance does not define a season - but he wants to see a considerable improvement in the final 11 games.

Crewe gifted three first half goals to Burton Albion’s grateful striker, Kane Hemmings, at the weekend, to end our proud unbeaten home record of 11 games and leave us with only an outside chance of breaking into the top six.

The performance infuriated Artell and his coaching staff and although a line has been firmly drawn under it, the Crewe boss says that consistency has to be key to end the campaign strongly on our return to League One.

Artell told the club’s official website: “There are 11 games to go and one performance doesn’t make us throw the water out of the bath tub but we have to make sure that that type of performance doesn’t happen again.

“We have gone through the video of the game with them. We have gone through it thoroughly and it is important to do that. We have given them instructions to overcome situations in games to make sure that those type of mistakes do not happen.

“The players have produced plenty of good performances. It was only a couple of weeks ago that we deserved to beat Sunderland when the performance was excellent.

The boss added: “It is all about becoming consistent and reaching the levels most weeks. That has to be the way going forward if we want to get where we want to be, if not this season then next.”