Lee Bell says he never doubted Crewe during poor run after beating Notts County

Lee Bell stressed he never doubted Crewe’s players during their recent poor run which was ended with a morale-boosting late 2-1 win over Notts County.

After five games without success, the Railwaymen tasted victory when Josh March converted a penalty deep into stoppage time after substitute Matthew Dennis’ shirt pull on Jack Lankester was punished by referee Paul Tierney.

“There were a few poor performances in that run, but we’ve not been a million miles off. This was a proper team effort, working for each other and getting in blocks and running well up the pitch. It shows the togetherness we’ve got and I’ve always felt with the group we’ve got that they manage the other players well and make sure they’re at it,” said the Crewe manager.

“I’m delighted for the players and staff and our fans may be slightly happier.

“I think we’re better in games like that when we have to get our blocks in. Notts County were always going to have more of the ball, but when we had it we used it well. We sat a bit deeper to see if we could open them up.

“Charlie Finney ran himself into the ground, as did Connor Thomas, James Golding was excellent and Josh March showed his character taking the penalty (after missing from the spot in Crewe’s last home game against Barnet).”

The Magpies were on form going into the early kick-off at the Mornflake Stadium, having compiled four wins from their last six and they pushed for victory in the second half after Nick Tsaroulla cancelled out Mickey Demetriou’s early finish.

The Crewe skipper headed in Tommi O’Reilly’s inswinging corner in the eighth minute. Mounting pressure from Martin Paterson’s side was rewarded just before the break when Tsaroulla drove a loose ball with a left-footed finish into the far corner.

It seemed likely County would make the most of their domination of the second half, but the visitors failed to take their chances, with Alassana Jatta the most culpable after driving an effort against the outside of a post from eight yards out.

Scott Robertson went close twice in the closing minutes, but County were caught out by some panic-stricken defending and March sent Kelle Roos the wrong way from 12 yards for Crewe’s last-gasp winner.

County manager Paterson said: “We had three or four opportunities to put the game to bed and players have to take responsibility and put the ball in the net.

“I’m disappointed we didn’t win the game by scoring more goals and taking the game away from Crewe. We left the door open and there was an anxiety defending our box.

“I thought we got the hard end of a decision, but the bottom line is that we’ve got to defend the box better than we did for the goal and the penalty.

“But some of our play was really good and Crewe were sitting low so it was difficult. We had so many chances in the first and second half.”