Boss dismisses talk of players focus on Wembley trip

Steve Davis says the forthcoming Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Final in April has had nothing to do with the club’s recent defeats to Hartlepool and Portsmouth. The Alex boss admits that his players needed a ‘pick me up’ following those two defeats but he stresses that talk of Wembley has nothing to do with a recent couple of blips.

Steve told crewealex.net: “I am sure the players are being asked about Wembley by their family, supporters and the media, but it isn’t really mentioned at the training ground. The focus very much remains on our league form and making sure we are safe first and foremost.

“The final is on the horizon and we will get excited about it when it comes around but there are a lot of League games before that and that remains our bread and butter. Firstly we have to stay in this league and then look to finish as high as we can.

“Nothing will change here because we have the Final coming up. The preparation will be the same and we will only prepare for Southend when we need to. Our preparations for that will be very similar to the Play-Off final anyway.

Steve added: “We have suffered two disappointing defeats recently but there is no panic here. The squad has done remarkably well and have been good up to now and they deserve credit for exceeding expectations so far.”