Dario Gradi is backing young Simon Church to come through his recent barren spell in front of goal and regain his earlier form for us. Church has not scored since our meeting with Cheltenham Town back in late October and although the on-loan teenager from Reading has worked extremely hard upfront, all strikers like to score goals.

Church is still trying his feet in the senior game and Dario has urged the Alex faithful to remain patient with the Wales Under-21 International. Church arguably had his most ineffective game last weekend and was replaced by Shaun Miller in the second period as Crewe struggled to expose a stringent Walsall defence.

The club's Technical Director told the club's official web-site: "Simon has been a great asset to us and we all think he is going to be a good player. He is still learning the game and you have to remember that he is still only 18 years old.

"Young players are often a bit up-and-down with their performances. You tend to get that but he will learn from it. When things are not going as well as he would like, he will learn a few things about himself and his game and that is only good for his future development. The next time he has a dip in form, he will be able to handle it better mentally.

"Simon has not played as well as he has done in the last couple of games, but we expected that. He couldn't have continued to play at that level of consistency forever.

"We would like to keep him beyond his loan period. It is something we have discussed and we would like him to stay longer and continue to gain some experience here."