This Is Cheshire

Gradi says Crewe areadu in a relegation battle

From the Guardian Series, first published Thursday 10th Mar 2005.

ALEX boss Dario Gradi slammed his side's defending after admitting they were "outclassed" against Wolves.

Two apiece from Carl Cort and Kenny Miller made it look far too easy at the Alexandra Stadium, last Saturday.

"We gave away the goals far too easily to be able to play against a team like Wolves," he bemoaned.

"We got off to a great start with the penalty, then gave a soft goal away.

"The mistakes have never gone away at the back and we've had problems there all season.

"We've tried to do something about that but quite clearly it's not been good enough.

"In the end we have looked outclassed. I have to say our defending left a lot to be desired."

Although struck by sickness and injury, Gradi refused to make excuses.

Ben Williams made his first start since October with Clayton Ince out with a broken finger.

Adie Moses was in for suspended Steve Foster while Lee Bell and Luke Varney missed out through illness.

Justin Cochrane suffered an ankle injury and Colin Murdock was dropped to the bench.

"We had a decent team out," he added.

"We had some kids on the bench but the players out there had a right to be there.

"People like Adie Moses have a short time to impress so he needs to be busting a gut to get in."

Gradi was pleased with the debut of Darren Moss who made his first Championship start after arriving from Shrewsbury, last Wednesday.

"I thought Darren had an excellent debut, his temperament was excellent as well as his ability on the ball," he continued.

"He's looked a bit quiet in training but I was pleased with him.

"There are one or two things we need to work on with him but that was a decent start."

A carbon copy of last year's dismal slide, Crewe realise they face a fight to beat the drop once more.

"As far as I'm concerned we're already in a relegation battle," he continued.

"I don't think 50 points will be enough either so we need to pick up three or four wins.

"It's a hard league for us because we cannot sustain that level of quality we had shown earlier in the season.

"We do have some difficult fixtures coming up but we need points and I'm not bothered where they come from."

Archive Home