Morecambe 1 Crewe Alexandra 1: How the managers reacted

Morecambe boss Derek Adams and his Crewe Alexandra counterpart, David Artell, had differing views of the challenge that overshadowed Saturday’s draw at the Globe Arena.
Adam Phillips was sent offAdam Phillips was sent off
Adam Phillips was sent off

Having seen Aaron Wildig’s goal cancel out Perry Ng’s opener for the visitors, honours were even deep into stoppage time.

Then, the Shrimps had a corner from which Crewe broke and Adam Phillips’ poor challenge sent Ng flying to the floor.

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The Burnley loanee was given a straight red card with Artell seeing yellow for his conduct in the aftermath.

Artell was first to see the media afterwards and was an unhappy man at what he had witnessed.

“It’s one of the worst tackles I’ve seen in 20 years,” he claimed.

“If he thinks that’s appropriate then good luck to him, good luck to him, because it’s scandalous what he did.

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“He’s tried to break my lad’s leg, and if he tries to do that, then he deserves everything he gets.”

Having been informed of Artell’s view on Phillips’ red card, Adams had his own response to proceedings.

He replied: “He (Artell) hasn’t watched a lot of football has he? He probably hasn’t watched himself on video many times!

“From my point of view, I think it’s a mistimed trip more than a sending off but that’s not up to me. Adam had to make the foul because we did get caught on the counter.”

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Both teams needed a positive outcome from the game for vastly different reasons.

Crewe could have gone top of League Two with a victory, while the Shrimps needed to put more daylight between themselves and bottom club Stevenage.

An end-to-end game saw the woodwork struck on three occasions, as well as a number of chances for both teams.

“I thought it was a good game from both sides,” Adams said.

“We had spells where we controlled possession and so did Crewe who, rightly, are at the top of the league but we competed well with them.

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“We believe it (Crewe’s goal) was a foul against Sam Lavelle; Ng pulled Sam to the ground and that enabled him to get the ball into the back of the net.

“We felt hard done by at that moment in time but we probably shouldn’t have given away the corner first of all.

“I thought we responded really well, the enthusiasm, drive and desire from the players was there to be seen.

“Aaron Wildig had another very good performance and I’m delighted for him.

“I knew before I came here that he was always a player who would get himself into scoring positions.”