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Davis: We earned our luck

Image: Steve Davis: Admits Crewe were fortunate

Steve Davis accepted Crewe rode their luck as they moved out of the bottom four with a 3-1 win against fellow strugglers Gillingham.

The Railwaymen's victory included several contentious decisions which left Gillingham coach Steve Lovell in despair. But Davis believes his players have rediscovered their confidence after winning three of their last four games and are being rewarded for hard-working performances. "Our results in the last four games have been fantastic and have put a whole new dimension on where we are, " Davis said. "It has given the lads a huge boost of confidence. We got a little bit of luck, which you need, but maybe we earned that. "The players know they have not played as well as they can, but they have worked hard and ground it out and got the result they deserved in the end." Crewe received a boost this week when Nicky Ajose extended his loan from Leeds until the end of the season. The forward could have bagged a hat-trick, only to be denied by the efforts of his own team-mate, Harry Davis, and Gills' goalkeeper Stuart Nelson. Ajose converted a 27th-minute penalty to get Crewe in front after Gavin Hoyte had brought down Uche Ikpeazu. But hiAjose's set-play flick-on, which appeared destined for the far corner, was finished by Crewe skipper Davis five minutes later and then he botched a one-versus-one with Nelson just after the break, which would have left Crewe in command. Gillingham were back in contention when Bradley Dack touched home a Cody McDonald shot in the 55th minute. But another of Crewe's five-man loan contingent, Ikpeazu, had the final say when he picked up the loose ball after his effort was cleared off the goal-line and drove in six minutes from time to spark fury on the Gillingham bench. "Their fellow (Ipeazu) nearly caught the ball, it was that blatant a handball. That summed up the afternoon for us," said Gills' coach Lovell. "We're getting a lot of bad luck at the moment. For their first goal their lads were saying the ball had gone out of play in the build-up. They went on to get a penalty from it which looked a soft one. "I don't think the referee had the best afternoon." Gillingham have now slipped into the drop zone and the caretaker management team, which includes Lovell and former boss Andy Hessenthaler, are without a win in their three games in charge. Lovell added: "We started brightly and the players kept their heads and worked and worked. "We piled on the pressure in the second half and got the goal and if we'd gone on and got a second I think we'd have had a third too."

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