Steve Holland has thrown down the gauntlet to the younger players in his squad to emerge as real contenders for a first-team place next season. Crewe Alexandra's first-team coach wants the likes of James Bailey, Colin Daniel Luke Murphy, Ashley Westwood and Shaun Miller to follow the example set by Byron Moore last season. The Stoke-on-Trent winger broke into the first-team picture last pre-season and went on to make 36 appearances in all competitions, scoring twice.

With the influx of loaned players increasing after the festive period, Moore was rested towards the end of the season but Holland and the rest of the Alex coaches were delighted with the contribution he made during his debut season. Now Holland wants more of our promising teenagers to try and follow suit.

Steve told crewealex.net: "I've made it clear to the younger players in the squad that we will give them time to develop their games and work on their physique but it is a big year for a lot of them because we cannot talk about potential all the time.

"Once they are out of their teens they really need to be breaking into the first team picture and contributing. They have all been here for a while now, so they know what to expect and what is expected of them to make that next step.

"The likes of Shaun, Colin and James have had another year with us in-and-around the first team so they should be a bit further on in their development. We want to see what the pre-season brings with them because we cannot be talking all the time about what they will do in the future.

Steve adds: "They have to step up and prove that we can rely on them now. We are hoping that those three will be somewhere near challenging for a place and I haven't ruled out the possibility of the first year pros being involved somewhere along the line next season."