Crewe boss Lee Bell is happy for his players to enjoy their win over Crawley but says he wants minds quickly focused on Tuesday night’s clash at leaders Stockport.
Rio Adebisi’s second-half goal secured Crewe a first in win in three games and with promotion rivals Barrow and Wrexham both losing, the Railwaymen moved into the automatic promotion places in third spot.
They are three points behind second-placed Mansfield and seven points adrift of pacesetters Stockport, but with a chance to take a chunk out of that gap in midweek.
“It was a really good team performance and we will let the players enjoy that tonight, but they have got to stay focused as we have a very tough game on Tuesday night,” said Bell.
“It’s a game between two teams in the top three and we’ve got to take what we did here into that. We came out of the traps and we could have got a couple more goals I thought.
“We totally nullified Crawley, and they are a good footballing team too. I thought our back players were excellent and we limited them to a couple of long shots. Harvey Davies got his second clean sheet in successive games and Ed Turns has come in and done well for us.
“The players’ energy was very good and if we keep performing like that we are going to hurt the opposition.
“Rio did brilliantly just before he scored by getting into the box and he arrived there again to take the goal, which showed his athleticism.”
The sides were closely matched in the first half, but it was Crewe who went closest to taking the lead when Elliott Nevitt crashed a shot onto the post.
Crawley’s Adam Campbell may have done better with a shooting chance which fell his way inside the box, but he only managed a tame shot which Davies saved at the foot of his post.
After the break, Crewe moved up a gear and Adebisi’s close-range finish came soon after he had powered a header over at the end of a lung-busting run.
Conor Thomas’ persistence saw the midfielder put over a low cross at the second attempt and Adebisi ran into space to turn the ball home.
Thomas went close to increasing the lead with a header which glided the wrong side of the post before Crawley piled on some late pressure, with substitute Ronan Darcy coming close to an equaliser with a thunderous drive.
Despite falling to a fourth consecutive defeat in all competitions, Crawley boss Scott Lindsey was pleased with an improved display from his team.
“I thought we were really resilient against a really strong team who are likely to be going for automatic promotion,” said Lindsey.
“I thought we went toe to toe and we were defensively resolute apart from one moment when one player didn’t do his job properly.
“We are showing signs of improvement and we can take a lot from that. We created chances, although not clear cut ones, and had a lot of the play after the scored.
“I was proud of the players as they took a really strong Crewe side to the wire. The players who came on did well – Ronan (Darcy) and Jeremy Kelly were really bright for us.”
Lindsey also felt Crewe striker Aaron Rowe should have been shown a red card rather than a yellow for an early challenge.
He said: “I’ve seen it back and it is clear. I don’t really understand that and it changes the shape of the game if the officials do their jobs properly.”
Victory in Greece signals England are 'moving in the right direction', says Carsley
Interim coach Lee Carsley was delighted with the progress of his England side as they defeated Greece 3-0 in Athens to move top of their Nations League group.
Having fallen to a 2-1 defeat to Greece when they travelled to Wembley at the start of October, the Three Lions exacted revenge as Ollie Watkins opened the scoring early before an own goal and debut goal from Curtis Jones completed the rout deep in the second half.
The travelling side entered the international break without several key figures, including Cole Palmer, Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden and Trent Alexander-Arnold, after nine players withdrew with injury.
While England are set to welcome the Republic of Ireland to their home venue on Sunday, Carsley is pleased with the development he has seen so far.
"It represents that we are moving in the right direction. We won't get too carried away, we have a big game on Sunday at Wembley,” he told ITV.
"It is just important the players played to their strengths. We have a lot of outstanding talent. The players that weren't here, we concentrated on the ones who were. They took their opportunity today.”
Carsley’s team featured three debutants – Jones, Morgan Rogers and Lewis Hall – with Jones scoring an audacious backheel flick to stun the crowd.
The Liverpool midfielder capped off what was already a tremendous performance as he had the most touches from either team (86) and delivered 100% passing accuracy in the final third.
"Curtis Jones is an outstanding player. He played really well, even without his goal. With his goal it was an excellent performance,” Carsley enthused.
"People were speaking last night about the inexperience in the squad but these players are playing for their clubs at a really high level."
Greece 0-3 England: Stunning Jones debut goal helps Three Lions go top
Curtis Jones’ brilliant backheel on his debut helped England win 3-0 against Greece to move top of Group B2 in the Nations League.
Lee Carsley’s men exacted revenge in Athens having been defeated 2-1 by Greece at Wembley. The result sees England overtake their opponents on goal difference with 12 points each.
England got off the mark quickly as Noni Madueke burst down the right wing, beating four players to the byline, before cutting back for Ollie Watkins to slot home from close range in the seventh minute.
Jordan Pickford was called into action to keep the scores level, first tipping over Kostas Tsimikas’ stinging shot before denying Fotis Ioannidis' effort from range after the break.
While Jude Bellingham hit the left post with a header from a corner not long into the second half, England would have to wait until the 77th minute to celebrate their second.
Bellingham was the instigator once more as he latched on to a first-time pass from debutant Morgan Rogers to charge in from the left and drive a low shot onto the left post.
The ball rebounded onto the trailing leg of the diving Odysseas Vlachodimos, who could not scramble back in time to prevent an own goal.
Jones completed the rout six minutes later as he latched onto Morgan Gibbs-White’s cross from the right to send an audacious backheel past Vlachodimos.
Data Debrief: Debut delight for Jones
Jones is the first Liverpool player to score on his England debut since Sammy Lee back in November 1982, also in an away game against Greece.
He is the ninth Jones to play for England, after Alf, Bill, Harry, Herbert, Mick, Phil, Rob and William. The only surname to provide more England players is Smith (20).
There were also debuts for Lewis Hall and Morgan Rogers. The latter became the 63rd player to make their England debut while with Aston Villa. It’s the first time they've had two in the same year (Ezri Konsa and Rogers) since 2007 (Scott Carson and Ashley Young).
At 20 years and 67 days, Hall became the youngest Newcastle United player to appear for England in a competitive international since Jock Rutherford in April 1904 against Scotland in a Home Nations match (19 years and 180 days).
Belgium 0-1 Italy: Azzurri advance to Nations League quarter-finals
Italy sealed their place in the Nations League quarter-finals and ended Belgium's hopes of advancing with a 1-0 victory in Brussels, courtesy of Sandro Tonali's goal.
Tonali – who recently returned to action after serving a 10-month ban for breaching betting rules – scored his first senior international goal in the 11th minute.
He fired home after Giovanni Di Lorenzo's cutback deflected off Zeno Debast and fell kindly into his path at close range.
Luciano Spalletti's visitors continued to enjoy the better of the play in the first half, with Nicolo Rovella going close when he fired high and wide in the 25th minute.
Mateo Retegui was denied by Koen Casteels when one-on-one after half-time, while Gianluigi Donnarumma was called into action at the other end by Debast and Lois Openda.
Belgium's best chance for an equaliser fell to defender Wout Faes seven minutes from time, but he headed against the post when left unmarked in the centre of the box, leaving the Red Devils locked in a battle with Israel to avoid finishing bottom of Group A2.
Data Debrief: Azzurri flying on the road
Italy have now won three competitive away matches in a row within the same season, beating France, Israel and Belgium.
They last achieved that feat between June and November 2019, winning five in a row in qualifying for Euro 2020.
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