Darren Sarll says the way some Crewe supporters booed off injured Stevenage goalkeeper Jamie Jones left a ‘bit of a sour taste’ in the mouth.

Jones was involved in a first-half incident with Crewe striker Chris Dagnall which saw both players dismissed.

Dagnall initially put in a high challenge on Jones which, Sarll says, left his goalkeeper with ‘a large impact cut and lots of swelling and bruising’ after he had caught a long through ball.

But when Dagnall then approached Jones after the challenge, the keeper hit out and following a melee involving more players Dagnall was at first shown a yellow card and then a red while Jones was shown a straight red card.

As he left the pitch following his dismissal on the stretcher the keeper was then booed by some sections of the Crewe faithful, leaving Sarll to say he was disappointed with their response.

Sarll, who praised his players’ defensive work in the second period to see out the game at 2-1, was also annoyed with what was a soft penalty given against his side in the second half.

Asked after the game if it would be weeks or months that Jamie might miss, Sarll said: “It’s too early to say, we won’t know just yet. All I know is it doesn’t look nice at the moment and the lad’s not walking properly as you’d imagine.

“Bit of a sour taste there where the supporters booed him off when he was on the stretcher. It showed a lack of real quality.

“A real genuine care or feel for a player that’s on a stretcher for a reason. If they were my supporters I’d be very disappointed and I’m sure the club will be disappointed with theirs.”

Speaking about the incident that led to the red cards, Sarll added: “Like some of the more illustrious people who work in my position I didn’t actually see [the reaction to the challenge] and I think the Crewe manager will say he didn’t see it.

“I was turning around and talking to one of the forwards, Matt Godden, and I didn’t see what Jamie did.

“Now if Jamie has struck an opponent and it’s dangerous then it’s a sending off isn’t it? Regardless of whether he gets sent off or not he will be out for the foreseeable future with that tackle.

“I’m not saying Chris Dagnall is a malicious player. I don’t know Chris Dagnall so I won’t speculate on that point, but [Jamie has] got a very large impact cut and lots of swelling and bruising above his knee.

“They don’t just pop up on people’s legs willy-nilly. There has to be some sort of impact in there to have made that, for the leg to react like that. Forget the suspension; I think his injury would eclipse the suspension and then some.”

Boro took the lead through Matt Godden, before the red cards, and then doubled it after them courtesy of Fraser Franks. The first was from a long throw and the second came from a corner, with Luke Wilkinson providing two assists with his head on both occasions.

Stevenage then conceded with 71 minutes on the clock when Wilkinson nudged George Cooper in the back and James Jones put away the spot kick.

“Every coach or manager will practice [set piece] situations to score. We don’t practice them to mess around, to look fancy and do a step-over and then kick it over the bar,” Sarll said.

“We want to make situations predictable for us to enhance our ratio of success in those areas.

“We’ve got a long thrower in Charlie Lee and we’ve a terrific delivery by Jobi [McAnuff].

“All scenarios were worked out. That’s why we plan and prepare and we executed it fantastically. The irony is in the pre-match meeting we were very, very clear that set pieces would play a huge part and even their one, a penalty, is a restart.”

Asked about the penalty, Sarll added: “It was rubbish, absolute rubbish.

“For some of the things that were let go… I think the way their forwards, and my forwards, were bumped in the corners and went down and held the ball and he didn’t give anything.

“To give a penalty like that, it’s rubbish. It’s soft. I’ve only been doing this just over a year but I’m slowly learning you don’t win with these people and we’re all in League Two for a reason.”