Lee Bell believes Crewe deserved more for second-half display at Harrogate

Crewe boss Lee Bell believes his side’s second-half display in the 1-1 draw at Harrogate should have been sufficient to earn them all three points.

The Railwaymen went into the interval a goal down and could easily have found themselves further behind prior to Chris Long’s 58th-minute equaliser.

But, having got back on terms, they went on to finish strongly, creating a number of clear chances to grab a decisive goal.

“The first half we were tentative,” Bell said. “We had lots of possession but when we got past the midfield line our quality wasn’t quite good enough.

“The boys were looking a bit nervous in terms of what we were asking them to produce, but the second half was much better, a real response from the lads, which I’m really happy about.

“We just couldn’t get that second goal. We had three clear-cut chances and based on the second-half performance we were probably worthy winners.”

On what his side did better after the break, Bell added: “There were a lot of pleasing things, the drive and determination to go forwards, with the ball and without it.

“I just thought the tempo that we tried to play at was better, not moving the ball slowly across the back and being a little bit braver to break the lines.”

Saturday’s draw means Crewe are now three matches without a victory and find themselves two points shy of League Two’s automatic promotion places in fifth position, despite having played more games than both of the teams directly above them.

And Bell is all too aware that his side have dropped too many points of late.

“We are drawing too many games at the moment,” he said. “We have got to address that quickly.

“We have got to show much more quality in the final third.”

Harrogate manager Simon Weaver felt a draw was a fair outcome.

“It was a good game between two good League Two teams,” he said. “It was a hard-fought grind of a game, but we were both trying to play football.

“I was delighted to go in 1-0 at the break, but we had to dig in at times in the second half and they scored a good goal.

“So, all in all, although both teams were threatening to get the winner, I think it was probably a fair result.”

Josh March opened the scoring for Harrogate just before the half-hour mark and Weaver was pleased to see his centre-forward rewarded for another lively display with his fifth goal of the season.

“I’m delighted for him,” Weaver added. “It was an instinctive finish, he stayed in the moment, he scored a good goal and was a great influence on the game.”