SHAKERS boss Andy Preece was in philosophical mood after last night's Worthington Cup first round defeat.

His side hadn't been second best to First Division opponents in each of the two legs but they paid the price for two defensive slips.

"I was disappointed with the result but have to be delighted with the performance," he said.

"Once again we played well and created numerous chances, it was just two errors that cost us.

"Our attitude was fantastic, we went about it the right way, closed Crewe down and didn't give them time to play.

"But we played some great stuff and created some good chances we just needed to stick the ball away.

"If we hadn't let Crewe score so soon after the penalty it would have been a different story.

"We didn't give ourselves a chance to kill the game off."

Now Preece is looking ahead to Saturday's top of the table clash against runaway leaders Walsall.

"If we play like that on Saturday I'm sure we'll pick up three points, but we must cut out the silly mistakes!"