David Artell says that his Crewe Alexandra side let themselves down at Accrington Stanley on Saturday and certainly from the crucial area of set-piece defending.

Crewe conceded three goals in short succession again to suffer a second successive 4-1 defeat and Artell says that commitment to keep the ball out of our net has to return to give ourselves any chance of escaping the drop.

Ahead of our mid-week trip to Wigan Athletic, the Crewe boss told us: “We let ourselves down on Saturday at Accrington, especially in one area (set-pieces) and we cannot allow that to happen again because they are cheap goals to concede.

“We have to get back to that level of commitment again to keep the ball out of our net and be better right across the pitch. If we can do that then wherever we go, we have a chance because that is the nature of the game.

“I said to the lads that 30% of goals come from set-pieces and it is higher in League One and Two, I think it is around 36%, so we know how important they can be at both ends of the pitch.

“It is an area we need to improve on in both boxes and it was a big factor in determining the result on Saturday and we cannot let that happen again.”