Town boss Joe Royle felt his side didn't deserve to lose to Crewe at Gresty Road. Royle thought his side should have scored during the second half despite being poor in the first.

The Blues' manager was impressed with Kenny Lunt's freekick which proved to be the game's winner: "It was a good freekick. It was a good delivery and he is capable of that. You can't blame the keeper."

"We didn't deserve to lose. Their keeper was man of the match. How we lost I don't know.

"Whether it's bad finishing or good goalkeeping we don't look like scoring at the moment. We have to address that.

"In the first half our forwards were poor. We had one shot on goal and in the second half we had 10 attempts and that was the difference."

His opposite number Dario Gradi said his side were fortunate to weather Town's second half pressure: "We got the goal and then perhaps rode our luck a little and we defended a little bit with our hearts rather than our heads.

"I thought we played well in the first half and I thought we looked OK because they were playing down the channels and I told the centre-halves to stand up and not fall over but they changed it in the second half and made it more difficult."

Gradi was naturally impressed with Lunt's goal: "Kenny's very good on freekicks and it was an excellent strike. Funnily enough, we decided not to practise set-pieces in training yesterday as it was hot and we'd had a long session."

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