TOMMY Lowery's shock return to the fold in Saturday's cruel defeat at Wycombe should provide the main talking point of this week.

But after Ryan Tafazolli secured a 2-1 win for the Chairboys at Adams Park with a 97th-minute strike the finer details of Lowery's situation should not distract from the reality that Crewe are in deep trouble at the bottom of the League One table.

While they were worth a point against Gareth Ainsworth's high fliers hard luck stories will wear thin if they get cut adrift in the bottom four.

Three of the Alex's next four games are at the Mornflake Stadium and they will almost certainly need to make the most of Doncaster's midweek visit on November 2 and could do with picking up at least another win from MK Dons' arrival on October 30 and Gillingham's on November 20.

That Chairman Charles Grant has intervened to try and settle the contract wrangle which saw boss Dave Artell exile Crewe's most creative player from first-team duty suggests there is very real concern in the boardroom that all the work of the last two to three years could be wiped away by demotion back to League Two.

After the game Artell explained: "The chairman has spoken to his agent and that is the outcome. It's brilliant, it's fantastic and that is what we want. It is terrific and I can't speak highly enough of him.

"He's got some work to do in terms of fitness and stuff like that but he's been training every day and doing well.

"So if we can play him we'll play him."

Right on cue, Lowery came off the bench for his first action since a Papa John's Trophy tie at Shrewsbury on August 31 and scored within eight minutes of taking the field (77) to draw Crewe level.

But home centre-half Tafazolli - who had opened the scoring just before the break (45) when Curtis Thompson's shot diverted off him - finished off Jordan Obita's cross with virtually the last kick of the game.

"A draw was probably a fair result, but it's not happened. But if we keep playing like that we will be all right," insisted Artell.