06 February 2021

David Artell fumes at lack of red card for ‘horrific challenge’ in Crewe loss

06 February 2021

Crewe boss David Artell was left seething at what he described as a ‘broken leg tackle’ during his side’s 2-0 defeat at Peterborough

Artell was angered when Posh defender Frankie Kent was only shown a yellow card from referee Carl Boyeson for a wild lunge on Luke Murphy early in the second half.

Alexandra lost Ollie Finley to a leg break in midweek and Artell was relieved to see Murphy continue, but by then Crewe had been undone by two goals in the space of six first-half minutes.

Sammie Szmodics gave Posh the edge in the 25th minute before providing a second for top scorer Jonson Clarke Harris six minutes later.

Szmodics, Siriki Dembele and sub Mo Eisa all wasted chances to put Posh out of sight in the second half after Owen Dale and Billy Jones went closest to a Crewe reply.

Artell said: “Goals change games and we’ve conceded twice in almost identical fashion twice. For that to happen once is bad, but for it to then happen again a few minutes later is criminal.

“We have to make sure we understand why the game went away from us and didn’t get back into it. We didn’t use our brains enough and we’ve got to be better – it’s as simple as that.

“But the game should have changed on 47 minutes when their lad made a broken leg tackle and yet the referee gave a yellow card.

“We had a lad with a broken leg in midweek and we’ve just seen another broken leg tackle this afternoon and yet the referee gives a yellow card.

“If he doesn’t think that’s reckless and endangering an opponent…

“It’s only because an experienced midfielder gets out of the way of it. It’s an horrific challenge.”

The result saw promotion hopefuls Peterborough return to winning ways after losing to Shrewsbury in League One and to Tranmere in the Papa John’s Trophy.

Posh boss Darren Ferguson said: “I am very pleased with the victory and another clean sheet.

“We scored two good goals and could have scored more to perhaps kill the game off in the second half.

“It was a little frustrating we didn’t do that, but I am delighted with the players overall as they put a real shift in.

“We were aggressive and played some really good football which culminated in two excellent goals.”

Ferguson was especially pleased with the performance of Szmodics.

He added: “The front three combined really well and I thought Sammie in particular was brilliant.

“He scored one, created the other and his energy was superb.

“He got into some great positions and linked the play really well.

“Everyone knows it is a heavy pitch, but that is not causing us any problems at the minute in terms of the performances.

“We are creating chances, scoring goals and keeping clean sheets on it, but we know we are going to need everyone to play their part.”

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