Crewe’s opening day delight at Salford chimes with Bell

Crewe manager Lee Bell was delighted with his side’s 3-1 opening day win at Salford.

The Alex took an early lead through a Kadeem Harris own goal after eight minutes at the Peninsula Stadium, but the winger made amends with a fine 16th-minute strike.

Two goals by Conor Thomas won it for Crewe at the end of a frantic first half, which also saw Ben Woodburn’s fourth-minute penalty for Salford saved by Tom Booth.

Bell said: “I think it was a good team performance with lots of energy out there.

“This is probably one of the toughest places you’re going to come. Salford are a really good team, and I expect them to be up and around it come the end of the season. But I’m really pleased with the players, and we’ve set high demands on them in terms of what we expect on the pitch, and we saw it through.

“It was a mad first 45 minutes, but we said we want to be exciting. When you get a penalty given against you after four minutes, you think: ‘Here we go again at Salford.’ But it was a brilliant save, Tom (Booth) had done his homework, and I think at half-time it could even have been 5-2 to us, really.

“We want to be exciting. We’ve got the energy on the pitch, but we know it’s just one game. We’ll quickly dissect it and move on to Monday.

“Football’s about winning, and we’ve got a way of which we want to try and implement. The energy the players showed on the pitch is key to that, and hopefully when we maintain that energy on the pitch, we’re going to give anyone a really good game.”

Salford boss Karl Robinson said: “The goals were preventable. I’ve spent a long time in there going through multiple aspects where we need to do better.

“When we defended as a team, we looked good, we looked compact and we looked difficult to beat. But the flippancy where we don’t stop crosses or don’t track people into the box – that is individual, and we’ve got to stamp it out very quickly.

“It wouldn’t be fair to come out here and say I have all the answers, it’s a learning curve for us.

“I’m disappointed because we got beat and because of the way we got beat – because how can you get out of any league if you’re not willing to run with your player in the box? Do you choose to leave them?

“We’ve got to keep the plan and keep the focus. I’m angry but I have clarity, and I’m not going to lose faith in them, because it’s just one game.”