ASSISTANT boss Neil Baker has hit back after Nigel Clough’s scathing attack on Kelvin Mellor.

The 21-year-old defender opted to sign a new two-year deal with Crewe, snubbing a surprise move to Championship outfit Derby County.

Clough’s resulting tirade sparked fury from Alex fans who took to Twitter to vent their feelings over his conduct.

“We had a good meeting with Kelvin, his dad and a couple of representatives,” he told BBC Radio Derby.

“I think they spent quite a bit of the meeting telling us how utterly dismayed and dejected they were about his treatment at Crewe.

“Crewe put a year on the table which they felt was disrespectful.

“When he turns round then and says he was going to stay at Crewe we’re very surprised.

“He even got to the stage where he said he felt the manager was picking his son over Kelvin.

“It must be difficult for him going back to the dressing room after all the things he said to us.

“And then when everyone else was starting back for pre-season he decided to go to Ibiza with his mates for five days.”

Baker felt Mellor made the right decision.

“He wasn’t ready to go to Derby, I don’t care what anyone says,” he countered.

“He got a great offer and turned it down to stay with us which was the right decision, believe you me.

“You take away the glamour and glitz of the move and was he going to play in Derby’s first team, who knows?

“I don’t think he wanted to go initially, maybe his agent thought the offer from us wasn’t a great one and touted him round a bit.

“That’s the part of this game you don’t like – they’re not giving the boy good advice, telling him to move to Derby on a three-year deal.”

Byron Moore celebrated his new two-year deal by scoring the opener in Crewe’s 2-0 win at Congleton, last Saturday.

New striker Mathias Pogba was also on target while former Northampton midfielder Abdul Osman did enough to earn a contract offer.

The 25-year-old also impressed in Monday’s 3-0 win at Quorn (Pogba, Brendan Daniels, Harry Clayton) while the Alex smashed Chasetown 7-1 with Shaun Miller and Max Clayton (2) among the scorers.

“We’ve have a look at Abdul and he’s the final central midfielder we’re looking for,” said boss Steve Davis.

“We’ll have to see what we can do in terms of finances.”

Crewe travel to Leek (7.30pm KO) tomorrow night, Nantwich on Saturday (3pm KO) and Eastleigh on Tuesday (7.45pm KO).