Steve Davis pleased with George Ray's first start

Steve Davis, the Crewe Alexandra manager, says young George Ray could be pleased with his full debut against Doncaster Rovers. Ray, 19, battled away with the vastly experienced and physical Chris Brown and he slotted in well in a back three alongside Mark Ellis and Harry Davis.

Ray became the first player in history to make his ‘debut’ at Wembley when coming on in the closing minutes against Southend United in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Final and his form for the Under-21s saw him called up for the Wales Under-21 squad.

Steve told crewealex.net: “We have had some enforced changes because of injuries and who we have had available. When you lose players, it does give other players a chance and George’s came on Saturday.

“I’ve told the fringe players in our squad that they could well get a chance and that they had to be ready and I thought George coped really well. It was a tough baptism against the top team in the division but I wanted to see if his character could cope and he did. George has a great temperament and gets his head on things.

“He did very well against their aerial threat and I was pleased. It was a real positive to take from the game.

Steve added: “There is room for improvement, as there is in all of them, but it was a good debut from him.”