Crewe boss Alex Morris knows his side need more fire in front of goal after a dour goalless draw at Carlisle.

Morris admitted it was a “tough watch” after the snooze fest at Brunton Park.

Striker Kristian Dennis, who has scored eight times this season, squandered Carlisle’s best chance when he headed wide on the stroke of half time.

Alex stopper Arthur Okonkwo produced a good save early in the second half to keep out Jordan Gibson’s long-range strike while Dan Agyei could have stolen it late on for Crewe but fired wide.

Morris said: “We were worthy of the point, we certainly weren’t worthy of winning the game and we certainly didn’t deserve to lose the game.

“It was a tough watch wasn’t it? I think we’ll all admit that. It was a tough watch.

“We were really striving to try and provide more quality once we got into the final third.

“We got up into the final third a lot more in the second half but we’re just not catching fire up there.

“Players aren’t showing as much belief as they need to show in those areas.

“We’ve got some players on that pitch who are all technicians who can handle the football but it’s about transferring that into the games when it matters, not leaving it out on the training pitch.

“I think we’ve seen exactly what we are. We are a really organised side, we have travelled away from home five times and only lost once. But we are searching ever so hard to build more moves.

“It’s all well and good having the ball but we need to commit more bodies and combine better so we are taking that possession and territory into goals.

“We didn’t do it and didn’t threaten to do it.”

The Cumbrian club maintained their unbeaten home start to the season but were also left wanting more.

Boss Paul Simpson said: “It wasn’t really a football spectacle, was it? Let’s be honest.

“It wasn’t a great game of football. It was a game lacking in spark, lacking in energy and lacking in goal-mouth action.

“Thankfully we’ve taken a point out of it when on other days we could easily have lost it.

“I’m disappointed but on the other hand we’ve made a fantastic start to the season and if you’d have offered me that at the start then I’d definitely have taken it.

“It’s about points on the board. But I’m asking supporters to come in and we’ve got to entertain them.

“The last 15 minutes the crowd were trying to give us a spark but unfortunately we lacked that. We just didn’t have that life going forward.

“We have to move on from it. It’s game 11 gone, we’re sat ninth in the table and we have to keep getting better and hopefully improve next time.

“You can’t sense when these games are coming and that’s frustrating.”