Crewe boss Lee Bell praises Omar Bogle’s attitude after beating Shrewsbury

Crewe boss Lee Bell praised Omar Bogle’s attitude after he helped to seal a 3-1 victory over Shrewsbury on his first appearance of the season.

The forward had been left out of Bell’s plans for the first three months of the campaign, but after being brought on during the closing minutes of the clash with local neighbours Shrewsbury he struck with a neat finish.

Earlier Tommi O’Reilly had restored Crewe’s lead after Josh Ruffels cancelled out Owen Lunt’s opener for the home side.

Bell said: “We’ve got unbelievable options on the bench and as Shrewsbury were bringing on some big lads it was an ideal time to get someone of Omar’s size on.

“I’m really pleased for him as he’s really worked hard. His attitude has been brilliant and you could see what it meant to the other players. While he’s a couple of weeks off being fully fit he’s made a great contribution to what was a great win.

“We nullified Shrewsbury and scored some great goals. Owen’s was brilliantly taken after a really good passage of play. I’ve been onto him about getting goals and he showed a lot of composure to pick out the corner.

“Tommi’s goal was brilliant – he really gave it a thump into the far corner – and Omar has come on and scored. There were good performances all over the pitch although I didn’t feel that comfortable about the result on the sidelines until the end.”

Lunt’s fine finish from inside the box was the midfielder’s first senior goal for Crewe and it appeared to pave the way to a comfortable three points, but Ruffels begged to differ when he drove a hard, low finish past Tom Booth for Salop’s equaliser eight minutes later.

O’Reilly was a troublesome presence in Crewe’s attack against one of his former loan clubs and the Aston Villa youngster produced a well-struck finish from a tight angle to restore the advantage in the second half.

Bogle then proved a popular figure after he surged inside to finish into the far corner right at the end.

Shrewsbury boss Michael Appleton said: “We weren’t good enough around the box and we want to be better in those moments.

“Josh’s goal was good and his performance isn’t one that I need to worry or address, but there will be plenty of others I will be addressing.

“It’s disappointing that our run is over, but we have got to bounce back. I didn’t like what I’ve seen so we need to turn it around quickly and be more competitive in midweek against Northampton (in the EFL Trophy).

“I want to see much more competitive performances than I have seen today.”