Following tonight’s 1-1 draw at Mornflake Stadium, Alex boss David Artell told the club’s official website that he thought there ‘were some promising signs in the first half’ - but again he was left disappointed that we could not sustain that level in the second period against fellow strugglers Doncaster Rovers.
Crewe deserved to be ahead of the break thanks to Chris Porter’s 50th goal in an Alex shirt, but were pinned back in first half stoppage time and in truth, it was the visitors who perhaps had the better of the chances to snatch all three points in the battle of the bottom two during an edgy second period.
Artell told crewealex.net: “I thought we were the better team in the first half and I thought we tried to play some good stuff at times and we did but not often enough. And then I thought the second half was a bit of a non-event with both teams making sure they didn’t lose the game.
“The onus is on us as the home team and we didn’t do enough to win the game. Anybody who has come to the game tonight has seen two teams that the performance in the second half was reflective of where they are in the league.
“When we are at home and even away, you have to make sure that you try and win the game, which we did but we needed that bit of real quality and understanding of how to do it. I am not saying we didn’t try that and there were too brief glimpses of that in the second half. There wasn’t enough glimpses.
“I think and I am sure Richie (Wellens) will say the same there was a lack of composure across the pitch, but when we did try and play we did put some decent moves together but it wasn’t enough from our point of view.
He added: “In the last 10 minutes, I was disappointed that we weren’t playing the right way. That English mentality of just whacking it forward and hope isn’t us. We want to play football. If we had conceded a late goal playing like we did in the last 10 minutes, then I would have been mightily annoyed.
“There were signs, especially in the first half that we were trying to do the right thing and brief instances in the second half but I did think that for the majority of the second half it was a bit of a non-event.”