Alex boss says we went too long too often.

Crewe Alexandra boss, David Artell, bemoaned his side’s performance after they were beaten 1-0 at Cambridge United this afternoon. Adam May’s strike three minutes before half-time decided the game at Abbey Stadium and the Alex boss described the afternoon ‘as a very frustrating one’.

The Alex boss was annoyed that Crewe chose to hit the ball too long, too many times.

After the final whistle, the Alex boss told the club’s official website: “I thought it was awful. I think the one bit of quality in the game has won it. I thought it was a terrible game to watch and that wasn’t us today. We whacked it far too many times and if they don’t want to pass the ball then I will play those who do.

“It doesn’t have to be pretty if you win and I am not talking about Cambridge, I am talking about us but we have to play better than that and it such a frustrating afternoon. We can only affect what we can affect and we didn’t try and pass the ball. We just whacked it up to Chris Porter and I felt sorry for him and Chris Long because they kept going, playing on scraps. It is not our game, not our way.

“I thought we should have had a penalty when Longy got a touch on it and the keeper has fouled him but look I said to them afterwards that don’t let the last 15, 20 minutes mask the performance because we actually started passing the ball to each other a bit. It wouldn’t have masked it if we had scored in stoppage time and salvaged a point.

He added: “It was an extremely frustrating afternoon. It was a great strike from their lad but we had worked on their counter-attacks and that is where the goal came from. We still managed to concede from it and that has just added to the frustration.”