It is coming together – David Artell confident Crewe will continue improving

Posted Sunday, September 12, 2021 by PA

Crewe boss David Artell insists his side will continue to grow as they picked up just their second point of the season at fellow strugglers Shrewsbury.

Sam Cosgrove put Salop ahead after 19 minutes before Mikael Mandron levelled things up before the break for a Crewe side who had lost their previous four league games without scoring.

Both teams had chances to win the game in the closing stages of an entertaining and open affair, but Artell insisted it was a fair result – and now he wants to see his side keep improving.

“I thought the draw was fair, we are disappointed not to win the game, but the draw is probably fair,” he said.

“It’s a results-based business although irrespective of the result, we played far, far better than we have done.

“We did well for periods, not long periods, but periods, and we saw relationships forming between the players.

“There was more goalmouth action, and it is coming together and that will keep coming and coming and coming.

“A few lads did really well, they all played to a standard, no one was poor, and we need to keep going now. It’s a start, one swallow and all that carry on, and we need to carry on now.

“We both had spells, and the lads showed character. We had a spell in the second half and we thought a goal might come if we keep the intensity up, but it didn’t, however that is an improvement.

“I thought we controlled the game at times when we haven’t this season, so we will train again in the week and keep moving forward.”

Shrewsbury boss Steve Cotterill, whose side now have four points this season, was in agreement with his counterpart.

He said: “I think probably, if we had defended their goal from the front better, it could have been three points, but on the day it was a hard-fought game and a draw ends up being a fair result.

“It was pleasing to score first for the first time, it was just a pity that we didn’t get another to build on that.

“It is difficult for the lads at the moment because they are in a strange place, they are young lads who don’t always know what to do in those moments, but we showed character today.

“In the second half at spells we had to defend well, their team grew bigger and ours grew smaller, they put big balls in the box and caused problems.

“We put in fantastic tackles and blocks, and at the end it was no different to our defending last season. I don’t think we have done that so far this season.

“The goal on half-time is never a good goal to concede, any goal is tough to take. We re-grouped after that and I think the lads defended well today.”