‘ALEX FAILED TO REACT TO SOME SETBACKS IN AWAY DEFEAT’

CREWE Alex boss Dave Artell was left frustrated after seeing his side suffer a 3-0 defeat at Fleetwood Town.

Callum Johnson, Danny Andrew and Ged Garner all scored after the hour-mark to leave Crewe second-frombottom of the League One table.

Artell was left unhappy with his side’s reaction to going behind, but also felt that Andrew should have been red-carded for an incident before he doubled the home side’s lead.

He told the club’s website: “I thought it wasn’t a particularly high quality game. I didn’t think it was a high intensity game either. We have conceded a poor first goal where we haven’t got the marking sorted out. “The second goal wasn’t a free-kick from a player who shouldn’t have been on the pitch to take it but that is all I want to say about that. “So we have conceded from two set-pieces and the third goal was a breakaway goal. “It wasn’t really about that. When you suffer setbacks in football and in life, it is about how you react and I thought some of our lads reacted really poorly.

“What I’ve taken today is that we have to react a lot better to going a goal down. At that point I didn’t think there was very much in the game.

“We should have also made better decisions in the final third of the pitch but going one goal down should not be the knockout blow it was today. It can’t happen and it sort of spiralled from there. The boss added: “We have had a good chat afterwards. Everyone has had their opinion and it was open dialogue. I think we will better for it going forward.” In truth, Fleetwood could have won by a bigger margin had it not been for some poor finishing the being denied by the woodwork. The Alex, meanwhile, managed just one shot on target throughout the 90 minutes.

Crewe are back in action tomorrow when they entertain Sunderland. Sunderland are currently fourth in the standings and managed to win 2-1 at Gillingham on Saturday, despite playing a huge part of the second half with only 10 men.