Crewe Alex: Holland hails players after Anfield heroics

STEVE Holland saluted his Anfield heroes as Crewe pushed Liverpool all the way before bowing out of the Carling Cup.

"I was really pleased with the effort and concentration of the players," said the Alex coach.

"It was a hard night for them, but they stuck to their task well. And it was only when Torres came on that Liverpool looked like they might slice through us.

"The fact they've brought on the likes of him and Robbie Keane was an indication of how hard we pushed them."

And Holland added: "To get back to 1-1 gave the players a real boost and helped them go on from there.

"We had our best spell after that and looked half decent. But they came at us in the early part of the second half and we had to do a lot of defending."

Crewe received a rapturous ovation from a 3,000 travelling contingent and Holland believes what they saw will erase some of the memories of defensive blunders away from Gresty Road this season as well as last weekend's 4-3 home loss at the hands of Southend.

"It was a chance to win some fans over, now we've got to do that week-in and week-out and keep them. They can see we are not a million miles away, but they can also see we're not there yet and that is the challenge to the players and staff to keep pushing."

Among those deserving high praise last night was teenager James Bailey, who was passed fit to play after suffering an arm injury in a road accident on Monday morning.

His car crashed off the road near Sandbach and he was being monitored by the club's medical staff, but came through to play his part in an epic tie.

"It was a great occasion to play against all those top players," said Bailey. "I thought I got into the game a lot in the second half and I really enjoyed it.

"We played some good football and towards the end of the game I thought we were the better side. It was a totally different atmosphere for us and the first time most of us had experienced something like that."