Crewe Alex: Cup results highlight Alex success, says Baker

NEIL Baker says last weekend's FA Cup results show just how well Crewe have done to establish themselves in League One this season.

A trio of the division's clubs did themselves proud as relegation battlers Oldham beat Liverpool 3-2, MK Dons won 4-2 at QPR and Brentford held Chelsea to a 2-2 draw.

Assistant boss Baker says that makes Crewe's efforts in reaching 40 points and climbing to 13th-place in the table ahead of tomorrow's home game with Scunthorpe (3pm) all the more laudable.

Crewe won 2-1 at Scunthorpe in August and will start favourites tomorrow against a side who are fourth-from-bottom.

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However, Baker is not taking his own team's survival for granted and says his side would be foolish to take Scunthorpe lightly.

He explained: "They will be competitive. If you look at the game there, we were very lucky to win it.

"They were excellent in the first half and could have been out of sight.

"I think we and our fans realise what a difficult league this is. People who don't only have to look at the results in the FA Cup at the weekend.

"They weren't fluke results. The Premier League sides did weaken their teams a bit, but this league is a really tough one.

"We are very pleased with our return so far. It could have been better, but it could also have been a lot worse.

"We are pleased, but not complacent. We want to go on from this and we are gutted every time we lose."

Speaking of which, the Alex are still smarting from last week's 3-1 defeat at promotion-chasing Bournemouth.

Crewe weren't happy with referee Ian Williamson after he awarded two penalties to the home side.

However, Baker said the Crewe players also have themselves to blame for failing to build on an excellent first half in which they were unlucky to trail 1-0.

He said: "I thought we played really well in the first half. We were the dominant team playing away against an excellent side.

"The referee didn't help us, but he didn't cost us the game because our second half performance really wasn't very good.

"We said 'well done' to the players at half-time, but I'm not sure we should have done because we went out in the second half and were very ordinary.

"You have to say they were better than us and, in the end, we probably got what we deserved."

CREWE have been allocated 1,800 tickets for the first leg of their Johnstone's Paint Trophy area final at Coventry City's Ricoh Arena on Tuesday, February 5 (7.45pm).

Coventry have sold out the 28,000 capacity home ends after pricing tickets at £5 for all ages.