Once he has recovered from the niggling injury that has kept him back from the training camp in Portugal, midfielder Ben Rix hopes that he can use the last season to improve after initially thinking that his days with Crewe were limited and insists that the team have what it takes to push for a place at the top of the table.

Rix told Crewe Alex World: "Personally I can't really complain about last season, I thought at the start of it that my days with Crewe were numbered really and I thought I was going to have to go somewhere else but the way things happened for me I thought I did well when I came in and obviously the management thought that as well.

"I thought it was a pretty decent season last year but obviously I have to build on that this year, which is perhaps what I have done in the past and just keep trying hard.

He continues: "All the lads have worked really hard during the summer and are raring to go now. Steve has shown us a few stats on what we did last year and the goals for column was the same as those teams that went up but it was unfortunately the goals against that wasn't right and we need to reflect on that and do some work on that.

"Last year we played really well sometimes and looked like we could beat anyone but also we could lose to anyone in other games as well in other games, we just need to get some consistency.

"Even if we don't play well we really need to grind out results, which we didn't really do last year, hopefully we can put that right this year."

The full interview with Ben Rix can be found on Crewe Alex World now. Log on now or sign up today for just £1.99* and be entered into a free prize draw to win Nicky Maynard's signed and framed match-worn shirt. Click here for more details.

*£1.99 for an annual direct debit subscription until August 5th 2007 then an automatic £34.99 annual repeating subscription.