Crewe striker March out with hamstring injury

Josh March joined Crewe from Harrogate in the summer and has scored three goals this season

Crewe Alexandra's joint-top scorer Josh March is likely to be "missing for a while" after picking up a hamstring injury in Saturday's 1-0 defeat by Bromley in League Two, says boss Lee Bell.

March was forced off after 68 minutes at The Alexandra Stadium with the Alex searching for an equaliser that never came.

Defeat dropped Crewe from fifth in the table to eighth, one point outside the play-off places.

"It was a bitterly disappointing afternoon - and then you lose your centre-forward and it looks like he's going to be missing for a while," Bell told BBC Radio Stoke.

Bell did not know the severity of March's injury but was concerned he had done some damage to his hamstring.

"It looks that way. You can see by the way he pulled up," he said.

"He's been brilliant since he's been here, hopefully it's not that bad but, if it is, it gives an opportunity to one of the others."

Crewe's first loss in three games ended their run of back-to-back wins over Notts County and Harrogate and left Bell reiterating to his squad the importance of staying level-headed this season.

"We have to control our emotions - how high they must have felt on Monday [after beating Harrogate] how well they played, and then to this, it's about us controlling those emotions," Bell added.

"We need to analyse the reasons why we didn't get the performance we didn't get.

"I keep going on about consistency and we need to get better.

"If we can consistently churn out performances, results will follow."

The Alex are back in action on Tuesday in their latest Vertu Trophy group game against Liverpool's under-21 side.

Bell said he tie will give him the chance to make several changes and will be "an opportunity to get minutes into people."

Crewe beat Chesterfield 7-1 in their opening match in the competition.