Opposition view: Crewe boss Bell rues 'avoidable' goal in defeat to Cobblers at Sixfields

Crewe Alexandra manager Lee Bell rued an ‘avoidable goal’ that made the difference in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Northampton at Sixfields.

Louis Appéré’s 24th-minute strike was decisive and came after Crewe were robbed of possession by Kieron Bowie inside their own half. Cobblers created further chances in the first-half before keeping the visitors at bay in a more even second.

Bell, whose side were also beaten 1-0 by Stevenage in midweek, said: "Like on Tuesday, it was a highly avoidable goal but if we are asking them to play a certain way, mistakes are going to happen and unfortunately for us it ended up with the decisive goal.

"It's an avoidable goal and there's not a lot between the teams in terms of those are the top of the table against teams lower down. You can see that with the results today.

"But consistency is the main difference. The top teams are able to hit a level of consistency and that's what we are trying to get to, but we never really threatened their goal. We built the ball up nicely and got into good positions but I think we only had one shot on target.

"It was tough to get in behind them and then when we did get into those positions, we were shot-shy. I said to the players that they need to get their shots away earlier.

"What we didn't do is have an attack and then have another attack, Northampton seemed to come out with the ball around their penalty box a lot, and we couldn't sustain any pressure.”