Davis joy at sweet Ness winner

Crewe boss Steve Davis compared Jamie Ness' winner against Bristol City to one of the midfielder's Old Firm derby efforts.

Stoke loanee Ness has struggled to make an impact with the Railwaymen since joining last August, but his 73rd-minute strike secured his side their first win in seven games at Gresty Road as they took advantage of City defender Derrick Williams' second-half dismissal. Former Rangers player Ness latched on to a loose ball from a corner and dispatched a left-footed shot from 25 yards into the top corner "Jamie has got a great left foot. I've seen a few 20-yarders he's scored for Rangers against Celtic," said Davis, who admitted he took fellow loanee Uche Ikpeazu off in the closing stages to prevent him from following Williams down the tunnel. "He's hopefully showing the supporters what he can do now. "He's taken a lot of criticism but in time he's shown what he can do." Ikpeazu, already on a yellow card, had tormented the City defence all afternoon with his powerful attacking play, but Davis added: "They were trying to rough Uche up and it was the right thing to take him off as we didn't want him sent off." Cityl boss Steve Cotterill was left fuming with referee Andy Haines' handling of the defeat, which was his side's third in five games. Cotterill, whose side stay top of the table, said: "He (Haines) was pedantic from the start, but if he sent Derrick Williams off he should have sent Ikpeazu off as well. "It was a stupid lunge from Derrick and he'll be fined and punished for that as he didn't see it coming. "But we were the better side even with 10 men. We were in control of the game. "I tried to quicken things up and they couldn't live with us once we upped the tempo. Crewe ended up scraping a result they should never have got." City controlled much of the game, but found Crewe youngster Ben Garratt in great form in goal. His acrobatic stop kept out Luke Freeman's free-kick. Aaron Wilbraham should have opened the scoring in the 27th-minute yet somehow contrived to mis-kick inside the six-yard box with Garratt out of position before defender Alan Tate came to Crewe's rescue. Garratt saved Crewe again after Wilbraham latched on to a Freeman cross, but found the keeper up to the task of tipping the ball over. At the other end City goalkeeper Frank Fielding performed heroics to keep out a near-post effort from Ikpeazu. But Williams' second yellow card for a late challenge on Ikpeazu changed the course of the game five minutes after the restart. Nicky Ajose drove just wide and Ikpeazu planted an effort into Fielding's arms. City still retained the upper hand although Kieran Agard blazed a great chance over. That proved a costly miss as Ness's missile settled the game and Crewe should have added a second when substitute George Cooper shot wide with just Fielding to beat.