Boss hints that his young goalkeeper is pressing his claim for another opportunity

Steve Davis says he will continue to monitor the progress of his young goalkeeper Ben Garratt and could yet turn to the England Youth International if our goals-against-column doesn’t improve.

The Crewe Alexandra manager was reluctant to select Garratt ahead of the more experienced Steve Phillips and Alan Martin due to the club’s inconsistent form, but says that the 19-year-old should be knocking on his door looking for another opportunity.

Garratt did feature last season, keeping a clean-sheet on the final day of the campaign in a 2-0 win over Walsall when the club started with a complete ‘home grown team’.

Steve Davis told crewealex.net: “I’ve spoken to Ben and I’ve asked him why he hadn't been knocking on my door over the last few weeks asking why he wasn’t playing.

“If a young player feels that they could be doing better than those in the team then they should throw themselves forward and have the confidence to do that.

“That applies to Ben as well regardless of the position he plays. I have been reluctant to give him another chance because I didn’t particularly want to put him into a team that was not performing well. I didn’t want it to affect his confidence.

“Ben has worked hard in training and continues to improve and I’ve said to him that we will assess him this week. I’ve told him I want him to keep the ball out of the net, I don’t care how he does it but I want him to be consistent.

“He played against Walsall last season and did well and I’m sure he wouldn’t let anyone down if I did call on him. We’ll see how he does this week.”