Coach says that pre-season games are the perfect way to practice.

Crewe Alexandra’s first team coach James Collins says that the club will continue to experience with the best starting XI over the pre-season. Steve Davis has created real competition for places and chose to mix his ‘two teams’ up for the short trip to Alsager Town on Saturday.

He paired new midfielders Billy Bingham and Adam King with the former Alsager youngster Ryan Wintle. James Jones came on at half-time but was forced off with a shoulder injury and had to be replaced by Liam O’Neill.

James told the club’s official web-site: “There is a danger of putting what you think is your best team out for every friendly game and you don’t get to see how certain players combine with others.

“I think it is important to mix things up and use the pre-season games to experiment a little. We have brought two new midfield players in this summer and we want to see what they are like in different positions in midfield. We have played 1-2 in midfield and have also changed that to 2-1 to see how that works out.

  He added: “We need to be clever with our formations because we can’t expect to play 4-3-3 every week and dominate possession, so we have to learn to adapt and these games are the perfect opportunity to us to do that.”