Kiwomya does the business for Davis

CREWE Alexandra boss Steve Davis praised the impact of his secondhalf substitutes, as the Railwaymen kicked off their League Two campaign with three points at Stevenage.

Chelsea loanee Alex Kiwomya came off the bench to create the first for captain Ryan Lowe, before securing the victory with a brilliant solo goal ten minutes from time.

Davis believed the impact of his substitutes, along with a renewed sense of selfbelief were the crucial elements to Crewe's opening day success.

“I thought we were excellent, second-half in particular,” Davis said.

“We worked hard first-half without really showing much quality, but that might have been because we were working so hard defensively.”

Davis revealed that he had considered changes at half-time to bolster his side's threat going forward.

“The two substitutes made the difference,” he added.

“You can’t come away from home and expect to stroke the ball around, you have to earn the right to do that and you have to do the horrible things first and we did that well.

“Changes were in my mind at half-time, because although the other two did fine they have that bit of life.

“Their full-backs were getting tired and I thought they might just be able to do something.”

Stevenage boss Darren Sarll was left frustrated by his side's lack of organisation in the 2-1 reverse at the Lamex Stadium.

Charlie Lee fired home a late consolation for the hosts, but it proved too little, too late as Stevenage slipped to an opening day defeat.

“We managed to undo a lot of our good work ourselves. A Stevenage side that is unorganised is not a Stevenage side,” Sarll said.

“Today I felt we were too unorganised and because of that we did not retain the level that we have used so successfully of late.

“I was disappointed with the performance. Of bad performances, very few of them will result in wins. You've got to perform. We've not been good enough today.”

Despite appearing to shade a very cagey firsthalf, Sarll felt Stevenage were a long way short of expectations.

Crewe struck twice on the counter-attack to claim victory leaving the Boro boss disappointed with the manner of the goals his side conceded.

“With the first goal going in it was like a punch to the stomach, and then that causes you to think differently about the game,” Sarll added.