Town's Matt Tootle mystified by boos

The right-back was jeered on his every touch as he made his first appearance against his former club in Saturday's 1-0 defeat.

Tootle captained the Alex and played in two winning Wembley finals in 224 appearances for the Railwaymen and spent 16 years at Gresty Road as man and boy.

He joined Town when his contract expired in the summer. The 24-year-old left Crewe having not played since October because of illness and an ankle injury and turned down a new deal.

But, even so, the cool reaction to him was surprising, given his long service there. He said: "I was disappointed to get booed, but that's football.

"I'll never know why. I think it's football whispers – people think they know a lot but I could never tell you why.

"But I'm at a new club now and hopefully the fans here start to see the best of me – that's what matters to me now."

Tootle never allowed the reaction to get to him and had one of his best games for Town.

He said: "It was good to play against Crewe and I enjoyed it – I got a lot of the ball which is what I want. My end product can still be better but making an impact is what I want."

Town controlled the game after Adam King's first-minute goal and Tootle believes all the luck was with Crewe, who won for the first time this season.

He added: "We talked about luck at half-time and you don't normally have that much, but they're probably due it after their start. We had that many chances we just thought one of them would go in.

"But they were resilient, and switching to 3-5-2 tightened it up for them because afterwards, Larnell Cole and Jordan Clark didn't really get in the game.

"We still had chances but if we could have got those two on the ball more, that would have helped. It was frustrating and that one moment for the goal cost us.

"If we'd have kept it tight at the start, we'd have definitely got at least a point because they didn't really offer anything going forwards."