Alex Morris believes that the competitiveness his Crewe Alexandra side showed at Hillsborough last night will put them in ‘good stead for moving forward’.

A really resilient Alex performance, especially defensively, was eventually undone by a rash challenge in the box from Scott Kashket., resulting in the only goal of the game from the penalty spot scored by a calm Lee Gregory.

The Railwaymen had to contain one of League One’s best sides with their 1-0 win over the Alex taking them to eight unbeaten and moves them closer to one of the automatic promotion places after some results also went their way on the night.

The interim Crewe boss was proud of the way his side rode an early storm and grew into the game in a tough environment.

Alex told the club’s official website: “We had to change the system and go to three at the back after that first 15 minutes. They were causing us all sorts of problems and were entering our box too easily. We changed it and went wing back to wing back and were able to get more of a hold in midfield.

“Although that allowed them to come on to us a bit before we engaged pressure, they didn’t get in and around our box as much and we relieved some of that pressure without putting too many moves together ourselves. That was the only disappointment of that first half.

He added: “What they did do very well was compete, threw bodies on the line and tried to play and show courage on the ball in what is an unbelievable environment to play. I don’t know how many were in the stadium, but they made a lot of noise and I thought our players adapted brilliantly to all those challenges and that will only put them in good stead going forward.”