DAVE Artell says he has to accept that Crewe's fortunes are affected by the club's traditional cycle of player development.

While the manager has spotted the green shoots of recovery in recent performances against Oxford United, on Tuesday night, and Wigan, a run of seven consecutive defeats has left the Alex cut adrift 10 points from safety at the bottom of League One.

Crewe's hopes of mounting a relegation escape are hardly helped by injuries with up to 13 players unavailable currently, including Chris Porter who missed out through illness against the U's.

Artell is not inclined to blame the poor form on that ill-fortune, the latest of which saw transfer window signing Tariq Uwakwe sustain a serious knee ligament injury in the midweek game.

The former Chelsea youngster is expected to be sidelined for some time.

The injury crisis has offered opportunities to the likes of giant Academy defender Connor O'Riordan and Josh Lundstram, who recalled from a loan stint at Solihull was deployed on defensive duties off the bench on Tuesday night as Uwakwe's replacement.

Artell said: "Connor (O'Riordan) has done outstandingly well and he is only 18. All these [young] players like him are on a journey and we will give them all the love and confidence they need.

"We are the best club in the world for that. We provide those opportunities, but there is a downside to that as you get the inconsistency and the mistakes. But you also get rewarded with some wonderful stuff.

"At the moment it's a painful process."

Crewe's sequence of poor results may have put managers elsewhere under more scrutiny, but Artell says he is glad of the support of Alex Chairman Charles Grant and his board of directors.

"I speak every day to the chairman and one of the other directors is taking a more active role," outlined the manager.

"If you are using a railway analogy getting back on track is not the right term. This is the cycle we go through and we have got to accept it. There's no-one more hurting than me and we have to continue to get better.

"We've done it before and we will do it again."

And he pointed out: "It took a long time with Charlie Kirk - he didn't score a goal for 53 games and look where he is now. Owen Dale had to have loans at Kidsgrove and Witton Albion.

"But the likes of Zac Williams haven't. We've got to make sure we develop them and they become more consistent players and if they do they'll be better players."

Lundstram, who signed a two-year contract last summer and is now 23, says he needs to start playing regular first-team football after starting games earlier in the season before falling out of favour.

"I've not played as much as I've wanted over the last few months and I was buzzing to get back on the pitch [against Oxford]. I've got to prove my worth and it's important to have a run of games," said the midfielder.

With games running out it doesn't get any easier for Crewe to secure their first success since January 12 when they head for Cheltenham on Saturday (K.O 3pm), where Michael Duff's side are unbeaten in the last six.

But Artell added: "We had a large blip against Accrington, but since then we've been good defensively and we've got to be make sure that is part of our armoury."