Crewe boss Lee Bell praised his players after they strengthened their bid for the League Two play-offs with a 3-1 victory at Chesterfield.
Shilow Tracey and Max Conway scored in the first half, and although Dylan Duffy pulled a goal back for the hosts, Tom Lowery added a third in stoppage time.
Bell said: “The players took the goals really, really well. On another day we probably could have had a couple more. It was a really good team performance and a really good afternoon for us.
“Shilow Tracey probably had a chance before he actually scored but that’s the sign of a player that’s given everything to the club. He didn’t go sulking, did he? He came back for more and produced a quality opening goal.
“You’ve got to play for the team, for the badge, and they’re certainly doing that. They’ll get all their individual accolades off the pitch after this game, we’ll get a lot of congratulations won’t we, but the main thing is that you can go in and celebrate as a team afterwards, which they’ve done, so I’m delighted for them.
“Max Conway’s already a leading candidate to be getting the Goal of the Season for one that he scored earlier in the season. That wasn’t bad either today.
“We have to make tough decisions and we want to be able to make really tough decisions when we’ve got everybody available. Literally 8.30 yesterday morning I still didn’t really know which way I was going to go with it and that’s how close these players are.”
Chesterfield manager Paul Cook had no complaints about the result, and said: “You keep going over old ground so sometimes you’ve got to take your medicine, you have to congratulate Crewe.
“Sometimes when you’re in the cycle of what we’re in at the minute, you’ve got to go through it. It’s football. We are trying to progress as a club, but unfortunately today’s result probably epitomised everything we’re about.
“Every time we try to make small steps forward, it’s been blighted by injuries. That’s football, we have to get on it.
“My job as the manager is to make sure that the club progresses and goes forward. That we turn up to games like today and we make sure the game goes our way.
“It was a good, competitive League Two game and we come out on the wrong end of all the big moments. And if you’re going to be successful, you can’t.
“So it hurts me, it really does hurt me. I love seeing our fan base grow as it is. Sometimes when it’s not your day, you’ve got to congratulate the opposition.”
