Captain back to lead Crewe at Preston

Steve Davis is expected to welcome back his captain Luke Murphy, defender Mark Ellis and Byron Moore into his squad for the trip to Preston North End tomorrow. The trio were rested for our mid-week Johnstone’s Paint Trophy tie against Doncaster Rovers and the Crewe Alexandra manager says they will benefit from the rest.

Murphy was rested after suffering a tight groin in the build-up to the Doncaster encounter, but he is expected to return to lead the side at Deepdale. Ellis and Moore are expected to be recalled and goalkeeper Steve Phillips is struggling with a sore ankle after colliding with Doncaster Rovers’ Chris Brown. Alan Martin could return in goal with young Ben Garratt named on the bench.

Steve told the club’s official web-site:  “We made four changes for the mid-week game and I think that will benefit those players to have a rest. Murph did have a bit of tight groin in the build-up to the game, so we chose to give him a rest. It has settled down and I am sure he will be fine.

“He has returned to training with no ill-effects, so that is encouraging. We also gave Mark (Ellis) and Byron (Moore) a bit of rest and I think that will be important with the amount of games we have coming up. It was good to get through against Doncaster and allowed three or four of our players to have a rest.”