Dario Gradi says he has no intention of keeping England starlet Nick Powell on the first-team bench for too long. Powell recently impressed for the England Under-17s in a round robin tournament involving Turkey, Australia and Portugal. Powell caught the eye with a couple of goals during the three games, as did fellow Crewe Academy gradates, goalkeeper Ben Garrett and fellow forward Max Clayton.

Those two are destined to follow Powell into the first-team squad in the not too distant future but Dario has stressed that Powell needs to be playing regular football before too long.

Dario told the club's official web-site: "It is a tremendous achievement for everyone connected with the club to see those boys represent England. They did well in those games and will be better for the experience.

"Nick scored a couple of goals, he tells me one of them was very good, but no, it is terrific for them and for us.

"Nick would have been on the bench for on Saturday but it won't continue like that because he needs to be playing regularly. We have some options with him. He could play in the first-team, for the reserves or for the youth team but it is no good for him to be sat on the bench at the weekend.