David Artell says his Crewe Alexandra side battled hard against a well drilled Shrewsbury Town at Mornflake Stadium to earn a point. It ended in stalemate with chances for both sides few and far between.The Alex boss had to reshuffle his pack after losing Zac Williams through illness and Scott Robertson through injury. He named three of the club’s Youth team that were involved last night at Leicester on the bench. His side reacted by putting in a real hard fought performance.

Following the 0-0 draw, Artell told the club’s official website: “It resembled a local derby and wasn’t a particularly pretty game at times and we didn’t pass the ball as well as we should have done but I did think we defended excellently. I thought we had men who stepped up and that is not always the case. The younger ones struggled at Burton for example but they were men tonight.

“I was a proud man because we stood up to that physicality because it was a tough game. Games against Steve Cotterill’s side are always tough. They are fourth in the form table and have beaten Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland recently, so it was always going to be a tough game.

“In that respect I was more pleased with that than the performance against Charlton on Wednesday.

“We had a lot of young lads in the squad today, three of those played well for the Youth team last night but needs must and these are the most important 90 minutes of the week for this Football Club. It was men against boys because it was! But our players put a real shift in and it was a point earned.”