David Artell could not hide is frustration after his Crewe Alexandra produced one of their finest halves of the season to lead 2-0 at half-time, only to see a spirited Cambridge United side score two goals in the final 10 minutes to leave South Cheshire with a deserved point.

Crewe had controlled most of the first half and deservedly led thanks to goals from midfielders, Oli Finney and Scott Robertson but went into survival mode for the closing stages of the game and only had ourselves to blame for dropping two points.

David Artell told the club’s official website: “One one hand that was one of the best 45 minutes we have played all season, more than we have shown, but on the other we cannot be as poor as we were in the second half. It has cost the game and cost us two points. On one hand you say it was a real positive 45 minutes and on the other a real poor 45 minutes.

“You always have to say well played to Cambridge, they deserved a point for the way they approached the second half.

“As it turns out it feels like a defeat and we should never have been in that predicament in the first half. We should have been nowhere near that happening but that’s football. If you get too high it kicks you in the stomach.

“We went looking for a third goal when we didn’t need to in the dying minutes and that was discussed in the dressing room afterwards. We will keep working with them because they are working hard. We have got to get them better.

“I cannot knock their effort, but some of them panicked and looked like they hadn’t won a game of football before. They just needed to relax and make better decisions.”