David Artell could not hide his disappointment after Plymouth Argyle quickly transformed the outcome of this game with three goals in 11 second half minutes.

The best player on the night, Ryan Hardie, calmly clipped home his hat-trick goal to complete the scoring with five minutes left.

Crewe had led after 15 minutes after Chris Long’s goal, but were blitzed by an impressive Pilgrim side who are trying to secure a play-off place.

Artell told the club’s official website: “We stopped running around in that second half and that is a crime in my book. I built a career on working hard and some of them did not do that enough tonight. We all make mistakes in our jobs and we have but we have to work hard. That is the bare minimum.

“From being 1-0 up, we were 3-1 down inside 10 minutes of the second half. They had four entries into our penalty area, had a header from Ennis straight at Will Jaaskelainen and scored three goals. The first one was a tap in and the second one was a calamity and you cannot legislate for the goalkeeping there.

“We all know that it is not acceptable and if they think that is acceptable, then they can come and see me. I take the ultimate responsibility and the buck stops at me. We cannot have that again.

He added: “I said to them afterwards, do you believe we are going to stay up? You have to believe? If you don’t then come and see me because you have to believe. They won't play."