Lee Bell wants Crewe to learn from their mistakes after letting a two-goal lead slip to crash to a late 3-2 defeat to Morecambe.
Having moved into the League Two automatic-promotion places with victory at Notts County seven days previously, Crewe were in the mood to keep the pressure on their rivals and were well set when Shilow Tracey added to Elliott Nevitt’s first-half header with a thundering strike soon after the break.
But the Shrimps staged a thrilling late comeback thanks to goals from Joe Adams, Jordan Slew and Farrend Rawson, which left Bell questioning his players’ decision-making.
“We were in total control up to the 69th minute and then the game was turned on its head and they got a winner. Full credit to Morecambe for the spirit they showed, but the goals were down to individual and collective decision-making,” said Bell.
“We’ve got to take lessons from today and learn from them; we will need to go through it and analyse it. We have owned our wins this season and we’ve got to own the defeats too, take it on the chin and look to get better.
“The game was changed in five minutes and if we had done the right things and doing the basics would have got us the right result.
“The players are on the floor, but we’ve got to learn from this as we’ve got 11 games left and if we pick up in the areas we need to improve then we will be fine.
“While it’s disappointing to lose a game when you’re two up, it’s what we’re going to do now to bounce back that matters.”
Ged Garner wasted a gilt-edged chance for the visitors when he dragged an early effort past the post.
Crewe, then, turned the visitors’ counter-attacking against them with Nevitt bagging his 12th goal of the campaign before Tracey showed his unpredictable flair when cutting in to fire an unstoppable shot past Archie Mair for the second.
But Morecambe were back in the game with two goals inside five minutes, first Adams’ side-footer slipped under home keeper Harvey Davies.
Then when Davies pushed out another Adams effort, substitute Slew drove home the equaliser.
Mair kept the scores level with great saves from Lewis Leigh and Josh Austerfield before Rawson stunned Gresty Road with a back-post finish.
Morecambe boss Ged Brannan said: “We showed great character. We’d played really well in the first half and created chances – we should have been ahead early on.
“But we let Crewe into the game and they caught us on the counter for their first. It needed a great show of character and our defending in the last five minutes summed up that.
“I told the players at half-time that Crewe were no better than us and they went out and did so well. Crewe could not cope with Joe Adams in the first half with the way he was running at their defence and I am made up he scored a goal as he had a couple of chances. And no-one was stopping Farrend scoring that goal, he’d have taken their whole team into the net.
“We’re ninth now and the league is crazy. Crewe are up there, but we dominated them at times, so we’re not too far behind.”
Chile 0-1 Argentina: Super sub Martinez sends La Albiceleste through to Copa America quarter-finals
Lautaro Martinez struck a dramatic late winner as Argentina beat Chile 1-0 to secure their place in the Copa America knockout stages with a game to spare.
The reigning champions looked like they would have to settle for a point on a frustrating night at the MetLife Stadium, having failed to turn their superiority into the game's opening goal.
But substitute Martinez, who also netted from the bench in his nation's opener against Canada, finally broke Chile's resolve when he lashed home two minutes from time.
It moved Lionel Scaloni's side onto six points at the Group A summit - three points ahead of Canada, who beat Peru 1-0 earlier in the day - meaning a draw against Peru in their final game will be enough to secure top spot.
Argentina dominated the first half with 13 unanswered shots, yet just three of those were on target. One of them saw Julian Alvarez fire straight at Claudio Bravo from close range in the 22nd minute.
Lionel Messi also went close to scoring in the 36th minute. La Albiceleste's skipper let fly with a fizzing 25-yard attempt that clipped the outside of Bravo's left post, while Erick Pulgar almost turned Nahuel Molina's cross beyond the Chile goalkeeper two minutes later.
La Roja had Bravo to thank for keeping Argentina at bay, as the reigning champions continued to carry the greater attacking threat after the break.
The veteran stopper beat away Molina's fierce strike within five minutes of the restart, and just after the hour mark, he produced a superb reflex save to tip Nicolas Gonzalez's drive onto the crossbar.
With the breakthrough still eluding the world champions, Scaloni bolstered his attack by introducing Angel Di Maria and Martinez for the final 17 minutes.
Chile had increased their own attacking threat by registering their first attempts on goal in the contest, with Rodrigo Echeverria calling Emiliano Martinez into action on both occasions.
Yet, there was to be a late twist in Argentina's favour when an 88th-minute corner broke kindly for Martinez, who reacted the quickest to fire into the roof of the net and send La Albiceleste through to the quarter-finals.
Persistence pays dividends for Argentina
The recent history books would suggest Argentina should fancy their chances against Chile.
This is epitomised by the fact they are now unbeaten after 90 minutes in the last 13 meetings, winning eight of those, but that does not tell the full story.
Seven of those eight victories have only been by a single-goal margin and, of course, they lost on penalties in the Copa America final showdowns of 2015 and 2016.
Though they dominated most of this contest and registered 22 shots to their opponents' three, just the one goal was enough once more - with both of Martinez's strikes from the bench in this competition coming in the 88th minute.
Argentina progress to the Copa America knockout stages for a 14th consecutive time, excluding when they withdrew from the 2001 tournament.
Toothless La Roja resistance finally broken
Chile looked set to frustrate Argentina once again at the Copa America, and hold out for a second successive clean sheet.
Their defensive resolve - along with an inspired performance by Bravo between the sticks - looked like it would remain firm and keep the reigning champions at bay, until Martinez's late intervention.
What will be more concerning for La Roja is the fact they have now gone four successive Copa America matches without scoring, while having to wait until the 72nd minute for their first attempt on goal today.
That is something they need to address quickly ahead of their crucial final Group A clash with Canada, in which a victory could still see them snatch second place and a quarter-final spot.
Davies: Canada will 'enjoy the moment' after historic Copa America win
Alphonso Davies revelled in Canada's first ever Copa America victory, insisting he and his team-mates will savour their narrow 1-0 win over 10-man Peru.
Jonathan David scored the only goal in Kansas as Jesse Marsch's side boosted their hopes of progressing to the knockout stages from Group A.
The Lille striker struck 16 minutes from time to move the Canucks up to second place behind reigning champions Argentina, who beat them 2-0 in their opener, with 26 of his 27 international goals coming in competitive matches.
It gave Canada only their third victory over a South American opponent, and first since a 2-0 win over Colombia in the 2000 Gold Cup final.
They also kept their first clean sheet against a team from the CONMEBOL region since holding Brazil to a goalless draw in the 2001 Confederations Cup.
"We're going to enjoy the moment, but know the work isn't done," skipper Davies told Canadian broadcaster TSN.
Stephen Eustaquio added: "We were too naive in the first half, but played more direct in the second half."
Canada's first Copa America victory came in their second match, with Panama the only CONCACAF nation to achieve their maiden win in their opening match in the competition - doing so eight years ago.
Marsch's side face Chile in their final group encounter on Saturday, when a draw may be enough to take them through to the quarter-finals.
"We have everything to fight for in the last game," David told TSN.
Scotland denied '100% penalty' against Hungary, says Clarke
Scotland head coach Steve Clarke was adamant his side should have been awarded a penalty as their Euro 2024 campaign ended with a 1-0 defeat to Hungary in Stuttgart.
Kevin Csoboth scored the winning goal in the 10th minute of injury-time to put Scotland out of another major tournament in the group stages.
However, things could have been much different for Clarke's side.
Stuart Armstrong looked to have skipped beyond Hungary's Willi Orban in the 80th minute, before the RB Leipzig defender grappled across the midfielder, with both tumbling inside the area.
Referee Facundo Tello waved away Scotland's appeals, and a subsequent check by VAR deemed the challenge not worthy of awarding a spot-kick.
“It was 100% a penalty," Clarke said. "Somebody, somewhere has to explain to me why that's not a penalty. It’s a one goal game, we get the penalty and it could have been a different night.
“I've got other words, but I'm not going to use them. I don't understand how VAR can look at that and say it's not a penalty.
“In a European competition, it may have been better to have a European referee but we had European VAR and maybe a referee didn't see the challenge clearly on the pitch, so what's the purpose of VAR if they are not going to come in on something like that. It was a penalty.”
Having qualified for successive European Championships, this was Scotland’s 12th major tournament group stage, and in 50% of those they have failed to win a single match – at the 1954, 1958, 1986, and 1998 World Cups and EURO 2020 and 2024.
“We gave everything, there’s nothing you can fault there. It was a very tough game against a good opponent," said Clarke. "A very close game that was always going to be decided by the first goal. You could tell that after half an hour.
“Unfortunately for us when we opened up towards the end of the game to try and chase the winner, that we felt we needed to get to the next stage, we got caught on the counter.”
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