CROWS coach Neil Craig has praised his side’s resilience in fighting back from 21-points down in the first quarter to claim a hard fought five-point win over Essendon on Friday night.

Craig implored his players to respond after last week’s "sub-standard" performance against West Coast and, despite a slow start, he said he was pleased with his team’s endeavour.

“I’m relieved with the result because with the way it’s panning out, that’s a really important win for us, particularly after last week when our performance was sub-standard,” Craig said.

“I think the best thing for our supporters is that the guys set themselves for a really tough game of footy tonight, which it was. It was a really strong contest, but our response from last week, when we were so bad, was good.

“To come back after having a long weekend of travel and to play a tough brand of footy in a difficult game [was pleasing]. A lot of our inexperienced players would never have had that demand put on them before, in terms of having to respond at AFL level and really quickly too.

“I thought the way they went about it was really good and, whilst it was a tough game of footy, and probably ugly to watch because of the conditions, we take a lot of positives out of it in terms of where we want to go in the future.”

Adelaide had chances to put the game away in the third quarter with 12 shots on goal, but could only manage a return of 3.9. Brett Burton was one of the main culprits with two majors from no fewer than six shots on goal, while Jason Porplyzia and Richard Douglas also had trouble splitting the middle.

“I think we had 10 more scoring shots than Essendon and probably half of those are shots we should’ve finished,” Craig said.

“We want to talk about mental hardness and we want to be perceived as a mentally hard side and that’s one area we need to get really strong on, because if you keep kicking like that it will cost you games and it will cost you in a game that is really important.”

Scoring proved difficult in the slippery conditions but, much to Craig's delight, the Crows gutsed it out. The innovative coach also noted a further development in the modern game of AFL.

“I think Essendon got 21 points up in those conditions and, last week, we wouldn’t have come back from that. Coming off last week and to be that far behind tonight, our guys showed some real resilience and fight to get back in the game,” he said.

“I also think there is a new level of intensity evolving in the AFL, just with the speed at which players are playing".

One area of concern for Craig however may involve his star forward Brett Burton, who could come under the scrutiny of the match review panel for making high contact on Bomber Henry Slattery.