Crewe boss Lee Bell hits out at ‘unacceptable’ first-half display

Crewe manager Lee Bell branded his side’s first-half performance at Swindon “totally unacceptable” as they came from two goal down to draw 2-2.

Udoka Godwin-Malife put Swindon in front in the 21st minute and Jake Young made it two at the start of the second half.

Michael Williams got Crewe back in it before Rio Adebisi’s equaliser salvaged a late point at the County Ground.

Bell said: “Swindon could have been out of sight.

“The character of the group was never ever questioned, but the first-half performance is totally unacceptable.

“It was rigid, not brave. I’m just repeating what I’ve said to the players in a much calmer manner. It shouldn’t take two goals to go in for the shackles to come off you.

“The preparation for the game was excellent, absolutely excellent. I can’t fathom out why it happened.

“Maybe because that’s Swindon’s first game of the season, the energy, the atmosphere that comes with it.

“But you should be able to cope with that.

“It wasn’t young players doing that. It was people who’ve been around for a bit making mistakes, simple mistakes.”

Crewe goalkeeper Harvey Davies was at full stretch early on to keep out a Saidou Khan volley, but he was beaten by Godwin-Malife, who opened his account for Swindon when he managed to contort his body to flick home a diving header after Benn Ward had headed back into the middle.

Young took just two minutes to make his mark after coming on for his home debut at half-time as he cut inside and thundered the ball beyond Davies at his near post.

Williams’ rasping 61st-minute drive into the bottom corner from 25 yards gave Crewe hope and they levelled in the 85th minute as Ryan Cooney’s deep cross found an unmarked Adebisi at the back post and he headed beyond Murphy Mahoney.

Swindon boss Michael Flynn was left to rue his side’s failure to put the game to bed.

He said: “There were some unbelievable passages of play from us and some great performances, but we have conceded two poor goals.

“The only thing we didn’t do was kill the game off because we should have scored more goals with the chances we created.

“We got a little bit too open and it was like a basketball game when we needed to be slowing it down – and by that I don’t mean time-wasting.

“We were a little bit wasteful at times and trying to force things, too cute when you just need to put your foot through it, put your foot through it and come out the other side.”