Dave Artell praises Crewe’s creative flair after narrow victory at Oldham

Posted Sunday, August 11, 2019 by PA

Crewe manager Dave Artell praised his team’s creative flair after they grabbed their first points of the campaign with a 2-1 win at Oldham.

A brace from former Latics favourite Chris Porter proved to be enough at Boundary Park, but the Railwaymen carved out a string of clear-cut openings as Oldham made it back-to-back league defeats under new French head coach Laurent Banide.

The hosts took a second-minute lead through Christopher Missilou’s close-range effort before Porter headed in Tom Lowery’s cross after 22 minutes.

Porter doubled his tally before the break, converting from the penalty spot after Missilou felled Daniel Powell, and only the heroics of goalkeeper Gary Woods saved Oldham from a heavy defeat.

Artell said: “It’s a travesty that we only won the game 2-1 with the chances we created.

“Nobody could have complained if it had been five or six because Daniel Powell missed an open goal, Owen Dale missed from four yards, their keeper made a world-class save and there were numerous other chances.

“The fact we made a terrible start for the second week running is something we need to look at. It might be that we are doing or saying something wrong before games.

“But the fact we made all those chances and were so creative going forward is really pleasing. After the first few minutes we completely dominated the game and their keeper had a stormer to keep it down.

“What we need to do better is the grit and resilience, but if Oldham had taken their chance right at the end and come out with a draw, it would have been up there with OJ Simpson as a miscarriage of justice.”

Oldham boss Banide hopes his side can create more chances going forward and called on his players to show more spirit.

He said: “We created some chances, which was encouraging, but clearly we didn’t create enough.

“We’ve lost to the better team. I cannot argue with that. We were second best.

“In this league you need good momentum to get in front of opposition teams. We needed to play a little more. We needed to make more chances and just play more.

“All the players need to show more personality, more character and more spirit. It’s clear already that we need that.

“We need to create something going forward. Unfortunately for a lot of moments we didn’t have enough of that.

“I feel quite sad for Gary Woods. He worked really hard all of the game and made some great saves, but it wasn’t enough for us.

“I think some of the other players needed to help him more.

“We need to all support each other when opposition teams are putting pressure on us. Gary made some great saves, but we cannot keep relying on him all of the time.”