Steve looking forward to London Road challenge this weekend

Steve Davis says his team are a different group from the one that drew with Peterborough United back in early September. On that particular day, Crewe were 2-0 up by the 20-minute mark thanks to goals from Vadaine Oliver and AJ Leitch-Smith but Darren Ferguson’s side fought back and salvaged a point thanks to an injury-time equaliser from Michael Bostwick.

The Alex boss was annoyed that his side surrendered two points from a winning position but they could take great heart from such a performance against a side that were rather unfortunate to have been relegated from the Championship.

Of the starting XI who started the home encounter against the Posh, only five started against Swindon last weekend and we lost Bradden Inman through injury within the first half an hour.

Davis expects another difficult encounter against Ferguson’s side, especially as they are still gunning for a play-off spot and an instant return to the second tier.

Ahead of our trip to London Road, Davis told crewealex.net: “We played well against Peterborough at home and should have won the game after getting ourselves into a great position. They scored an equaliser with the last kick of the game from a corner. It was avoidable from our point of view and perhaps we were a bit unlucky not to have won.

“We are a different group from that point of the season though and are playing with more confidence and belief.

“They are different as well and have lost (Lee) Tomlin but have also added a few as well. They are a good team and it is always a challenge to play one of the best teams in the league. They were very unlucky to have been relegated from the Championship last season and were many people’s favourite to go back up.

The boss added: “They will want the points to try and secure a play-off place, in what is a tight race at that end of the table and we will be looking for something to make sure we stay in the division so it should be a great game.”