Exeter manager Matt Taylor hailed the efforts of his players as they ended Crewe’s unbeaten start to the season with a 2-0 win at St James Park to move into the top half of the League Two table.

A first-half penalty by Anthony Scully and a Reece Cole breakaway goal in stoppage time were enough for City, with the clean sheet their seventh in 12 games and only six goals conceded.

Taylor said: “In terms of the standard of opposition, and what we had to withstand second half, I thought we were as excellent as we were against Rotherham when we didn’t have the goals to show for it.

“Our ball use in the first half, we looked like we could open the opposition up and get into fantastic attacking areas and positions and it certainly feels like we are moving in the right direction – and that is a month’s worth of work on show.

“If you throw the (Oxford) Trophy game into it, it is a run of five fixtures where we have looked connected, the team are on the same page and we have improved.

“For the amount of dominance we had first half, we still haven’t made the goalkeeper make save after save. We had so many box entries and while Crewe defended their box well, we really need to make it count and be ultra clinical.”

Defeat ended an 11-match unbeaten start for Crewe, whose manager Lee Bell was critical of referee Harry Wager.

Bell felt his side should have been awarded a penalty of their own when Charlie McNeill went down inside the box, but Jack Fitzwater was deemed to have won the ball and not got the man.

He said: “I thought it was a game of two halves, they were on top first half and then we did to them what they did to us in the second half. The difference is the referee hasn’t given us a penalty and I don’t know how he came to that decision.

“Chaz gets to the ball quite clearly, the ball goes out for a goal kick and he gives a corner. It’s baffling how he gets to that decision, but the halves were mirrored – they dominated the first half and we were in top second half.

“But it is fine margins that we are dealing with. It costs a lot for the fans to come here, for the football club to come here and the least you expect is a slightly better standard than we saw tonight.

“I wasn’t bothered about our start to the season, we are on to the next game and that is how we treat it. It’s a difficult task going to Chesterfield at the weekend, the players will have some rest time now and we’ll look forward to what should be a really good game.”