Manager Lee Bell saluted the hard graft of Shilow Tracey after his brace in the 3-1 win over Tranmere which highlighted Crewe’s promotion credentials.
With the visitors having won just once in their previous eight fixtures and Crewe succumbing to defeat once in their last 10, the form book looked ominously against Nigel Adkins’ side springing an upset at Gresty Road.
That’s how it turned out as although the Wirral outfit did take an early lead through Connor Jennings, they tamely succumbed to a succession of pinpoint crosses from Ryan Cooney which set up Tracey’s double strike either of the interval before Joel Tabiner wrapped up the points.
Bell said: “I’m delighted Shilow has got two goals as you can see how hard he works. He has the most amount of sprints in the games and the pleasing thing is he arrives in the right areas, in between the goalposts and around the six-yard box.
“His all-round game has massively improved in terms of his hold-up play, moving players around and making good decisions.
“All in all it was a really good performance in terms of the energy we put into the game. The goal we conceded could have been a setback but I was so pleased we got one before half-time and that gave us momentum going into the second half.
“The opportunities were there for us to hurt Tranmere down the sides and we did that and Ryan’s crosses for Shilow and Shilow’s finishing were excellent. But everyone played their part and it was a real squad effort which made the game look like the way we wanted it to look.”
Crewe were unperturbed by Jennings’ eighth-minute opener, which was assisted by some robust attacking play by Harvey Saunders who bustled clear inside the box to square to Jennings who had a simple finish.
But Rovers cautiously sat on their lead and were soon under the cosh.
Keeper Luke McGee kept out a stunning Tabiner free-kick which was heading for the top corner, only to be beaten twice by Tracey who also went close to grabbing the match ball late on.
The big striker was in the six-yard box when he steered in Cooney’s low cross for the leveller after 39 minutes and for his second he lifted another Cooney delivery from the right into the top corner nine minutes after the break.
Fittingly, Tracey provided the assist with a lofted cross so the unmarked Tabiner could plant a header into the bottom corner to seal the win in the closing minutes.
Rovers rarely threatened Filip Marschall’s goal and Adkins admitted: “We were nowhere near good enough with the three goals we conceded.
“We let ourselves down and although you can give Crewe a lot of credit for how well they passed the ball, we were very poor. We set ourselves to stop them and counter but our football wasn’t good enough.
“We started the game well but goals change the complexion of games. We didn’t stop the crosses coming in and we weren’t good enough with our passing.
“I am desperate to do well for our fans and I thank them for turning out but it’s on my shoulders and I need to reflect on it as it was nowhere near where I expect us to be.”
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