A second-half brace from Steve Jones and a first-half strike from Dean Ashton earned Crewe a 3-1 victory over a Burnley side who dominated most of the proceedings at Gresty Road.
Visiting manager Stan Ternent had good reason to bemoan his side's poor defending again, hot on the heels of a 5-3 reverse by local rivals Preston.
The Clarets were in the ascendancy for most of the game and their slick passing was too good for a patched-up Crewe side who were without seven first-team regulars through injury.
When Arthur Gnohere wildly cleared a free-kick on the edge of his box high into the air, Ashton pounced on Kenny Lunt's pass and turned and fired past Brian Jensen to give the hosts a 38th minute lead.
Gnohere was involved again in the defensive mishap which presented Crewe with a second nine minutes after the break. He and Graham Branch made a mess of clearing a routine pass, the ball ricocheted off both defenders and fell to Jones, who drove it past Jensen from 20 yards.
After Robbie Blake had given Burnley hope by converting an 88minute penalty following Anthony Tonkin's foul on Luke Chadwick, but Crewe broke away and scored again in stoppage time.
Jones took Lunt's pass and finished a one-on-one with the keeper to put a flattering touch to the scoreline.
Ternent groaned: "It's just soul destroying again for us.
"We were probably better than they were but gave away ridiculously poor goals and probably had three times as many chances as they did, it was a similar story as our game at Preston.
"We will just have to get on with it and grin and bear it."It looked promising for Burnley early on with Glen Little making problems on the left and Robbie Blake in a free role.
But the closest they went to scoring was Richard Chaplow's third minute effort from Little's cross which home keeper Clayton Ince beat away and in the second half David Wright kicked Gnohere's shot off the line following a Blake cross.