Steve Davis believes his young team will improve in the second half of the season.

minute. ^thCrewe Alexandra boss Steve Davis says he has been greatly encouraged by our last four performances. Crewe have taken seven points during that spell and it could have been even better if we had managed to hold on to the three points at Doncaster Rovers when Callum Saunders gave us a 90

The Alex boss is targeting three points on Boxing Day to take us to 23 points at the half way stage of the season and better last season’s total of 21 at this stage last season.

Ahead of our trip to Spotland, Steve told us: “We want three points on Boxing Day to take us to 23 points. I think we had 21 points going into the second half last season and then we pushed on, so we want to be aiming to do that again.

“I would like to have 23 points from 23 games before we face Shrewsbury. I have been encouraged by our last four performances. If we had held on at Doncaster then that would have made a massive difference to our position and then it was important that we didn’t lose again against Fleetwood.

“We want to bounce back from defeats well and not get beaten in the next game, so it was important that we saw the Fleetwood game out. It is a tight league but if we can continue in the same vein of points we have over the last four games then we will be away from the bottom four.

He added: “We would accumulate enough points to move us up the table. That’s the target going into the double header over Christmas. “