‘NO-ONE CAN COMPLAIN ABOUT GETTING LEFT OUT AFTER SATURDAY’

DAVE Artell is demanding his Crewe players get back to the standards they have shown for most of the season as they embark on their final 11 games.

The Alex have earned plenty of plaudits for their results and their performances during their first campaign back in League One, after promotion last season secured football at this level for the first time since 2016.

But Artell, who is preparing his side for Saturday’s game at Northampton Town, says the performance in Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at home to Burton Albion was unacceptable and he doesn’t want excuses from players just because they are playing at a higher level.

He said: “It wasn’t so long ago that we were 10 or 11 unbeaten in League One and we have to get back to those standards. We have to get back to scoring goals and keeping clean sheets. Thankfully we have a week to address those problems.

“If anybody gets left out on Saturday, and comes and knocks on my door, they are not going to get much of a response from me I am afraid.

“It is as simple as that, not after Saturday. They have to understand the gravity of it.

“If you lose a game of football there are reasons why they have to be addressed – have to be.

“There have been too many times this year where it has been, ‘well, it’s Lincoln away, they are second in the league’.

“No, you wouldn’t have said that last year if it was Leyton Orient. Don’t say it this year. That is a standards thing.

“That is setting standards and expectation. That is an acceptance of what you are and where you are at, that is stopping being ambitious and driving forwards.

“We have to make sure that mindset isn’t the mindset going forward.”

The defeat left Alex in 13th and, while Artell, above, doesn’t want a poor performance to overshadow a largely successful season, he says his players have to make sure there is no repeat.

He added: “You don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, but you also can’t let a performance like that be brushed under the carpet. Otherwise you will be in trouble because it will come around again.

“So we have to make sure we give them the pointers and the instructions of how to overcome and make sure that doesn’t happen again. It is as simple as that.

“The good thing is there have had plenty of good performances this year. We deserved to win against Sunderland two or three games ago for example, it was a good performance.

“So, we know it is in there, it is just consistency now and that has to be the way going forward.”