DAVE Artell had harsh words for his players after Crewe threw away a three-goal lead in their first outing of 2021.

A double from Oli Finney and another from Owen Dale appeared to have the Alex well set for victory after the League One clash at the Crown Oil Arena went ahead following a pitch inspection.

But Artell blamed his side's naivety for allowing Rochdale to slip back into contention and grab an unlikely point with a late equaliser.

"There were a few lads who thought the game was won after 45 minutes and that is unacceptable. Although the silver lining is that we kept our unbeaten run going, that is certainly two points dropped," said Artell, who revealed afterwards that Tommy Lowery and Olly Lancashire have been isolating because of Covid-19.

"When you are 3-0 up you need to answer the questions the opposition ask of you and we didn't. The players were frustrated at the end and although they didn't need me to tell them that the second half just wasn't like us, I did.

"If we need to see the game out then we need to be horrible to play against and we need to defend set pieces better."

Crewe surged into control thanks to some rapier-like counter attacking, although they had been forced onto the backfoot after Finney's early opener (6) which he sweetly volleyed home from Travis Johnson's cross.

They broke twice with ruthless effect with Charlie Kirk and Finney combining in a slick move to set up Dale to double the lead (23). Kirk then raced clear to tee Finney up for his second (35).

But Rochdale were back in contention when Aaron Morley's cross flew straight in past Will Jaaskelainen soon after the restart (47) and Matty Lund side-footed Rochdale's second on the hour.

Former Alex academy player Lund blasted the equaliser from a corner with six minutes remaining after Jaaskelainen failed to punch the ball clear.

Yet at 3-2 a penalty awarded by referee Andy Haines - who thought Omar Beckles' set-piece header hit a home hand - may have been decisive but it was overturned after the official consulted with his assistant.

Rochdale manager Brian Barry-Murphy said: "Crewe are so devastating on the counter attack and we made a couple of critical errors leading up to their goals.

"But the players were amazing in the second half in the way they kept going. We were willing to risk losing heavily to try and get something out of the game."