Salford win is Crewe's blueprint for season - Bell

Lee Bell's Crewe finished 13th in League Two last season, eight points adrift of the play-off places

Crewe boss Lee Bell says his side's impressive win at Salford City on League Two's opening day has given them a "blueprint" for how to play this season.

Two goals from Conor Thomas late in the first half, to add to an early own goal, put the Alex on their way to a 3-1 victory to get their campaign off to an ideal start.

Crewe had 22 shots in the game, with nearly half of those attempts on target, 29 touches inside Salford's box and forced 10 corners.

Bell says it was "really pleasing" to see that a lot of the work done on playing positively during pre-season was evident against the Ammies.

"It's a credit to the players - the energy and aggression we showed, the willingness to run forward and most importantly the willingness to get shots away," Bell told BBC Radio Stoke.

"We did a lot of work during pre-season with players about getting those shots away, creating the opportunities and being in the right positions.

"It was there to see - confidence to get the ball under pressure, confidence to play forward, confidence to get the shots away.

"It's a good start - but that's all it is, a start. Let's see if we can replicate it on Saturday.

"We've set ourselves a high benchmark - I don't think we got anywhere near that during the whole of last season."

The Alex face Accrington in their first home game of the campaign on Saturday with Bell keen to maintain their early momentum and decent home record over the past few seasons.

Crewe won 11 times at the Mornflake Stadium in 2022-23, then 11 again the following season and nine times last term - although only once in their final seven home games of 2024-25 as their play-off challenge faded.

And Bell is confident they will still be a force on their own patch this time around.

"It is something we've been able to do - there have been some poor runs of form over the last two seasons which have deflected away from how well we've done at home," he said.

"But it's up to us and the players to make it a difficult place to come - the blueprint was there on Saturday.

"We've got to emulate that at home and make it a difficult place for teams to come and impose themselves

"Accrington will be different in how they set up but we don't want to take away that 'oomph' - of people running in behind, picking up second balls.

"It will be a different game and we'll have to adjust."