Crewe manager Steve Davis's 'juggling' sees off Shrewsbury

Crewe boss boss Steve Davis admitted that 'juggling' his attack played a big part in their 2-1 Johnstone's Paint Trophy win at Shrewsbury.

"If we continue to cause problems and make chances like that, we'll win more than we lose," Davis told BBC Stoke.

"We juggled things round and tried different things and we looked a constant menace.

"We tried to do something different in the way we'd set up and it took them time to match what we were doing."

Luke Murphy's ninth-minute opener put the Alex in charge before Max Clayton doubled the visitors' lead on 57 minutes.

Crewe keeper Alan Martin then dropped a clanger four minutes later, allowing midfielder Asa Hall's speculative 35-yarder to squirm past him and into the back of the net, but the Alex had chances to win by a wider margin as they booked their place in the northern section quarter-finals.

"I thought we controlled the first half," added Davis. "We got a poacher's goal from Luke Murphy and could have had two or three more by half-time.

"Then, after a nice trick from Mathias Pogba, Max Clayton stuck it away tremendously, which will do his confidence the world of good.

"It was only Alan Martin's mistake that changed the game, but I've got to defend him as he's won us points with his performances this season and I accept that, occasionally, keepers are going to make mistakes - although that was a glaring one."

Shrewsbury manager Graham Turner admitted that his side's performance was difficult to explain.

"In the first half we were sluggish and slow," Turner told BBC Radio Shropshire. "We didn't work hard enough.

"We made mistakes positionally, individually, collectively - and we've got to put it right.

"At least we upped the tempo in the second half. We gave it a go and we were a bit more positive. But we allowed Crewe to dictate to us too much and too many times in the first half."