Steve gets set for 'battle' in West Sussex

Steve Davis says his front four will have to be at the best to open up John Gregory’s Crawley side this weekend. The Alex boss is after a repeat performance of the club’s last away day at Gillingham where two goals from Chuks Aneke and another from Mathias Pogba sealed a fantastic 3-1 win at the Priestfield Stadium.

The Alex boss saw Crawley narrowly lose 2-1 at Vale Park in mid-week and admitted that they were a bit unlucky to see a late equaliser chalked off for offside when it should have stood.

Ahead of the trip to West Sussex, the Crewe manager told crewealex.net: “Crawley started really well at Port Vale and could have scored one or two in the opening half an hour. They had one off the line and looked the more likely side to score early on.

“Port Vale came more into it in the second half and certainly had more of the possession but Crawley are well drilled and are difficult to break down. Vale had to score their two goals through long range efforts.

“Crawley were resolute in their defending, compact and are a threat from set-plays. We have height and power now and don’t worry about that as much as we had to in the past.

“They have decent players and (Billy) Clarke was clever with his movement. He was explosive and sharp and is a threat.

The boss added: “I am not sure what their pitch is like. They had a lot of games called off, so I’m sure if it will be a surface capable of zipping the ball around. It will be a battle at times, but we will play in the right areas when we can and try and exploit their weak points.”