Steve Davis says missing Bingham, Fox and Harry Davis does affect the experience of his team.

Steve Davis believes that his young team will always have dips in form but that he will continue to keep faith with the youngsters at the club. Crewe’s average age on Saturday against Eastleigh was just over 21 years of age and Davis believes that can lead to spells of inconsistency.

Crewe Alexandra had previously beaten Sheffield United 1-0 to record our first home win of the new season with an excellent performance, but seven days on we exited the FA Cup to non-league Eastleigh after a game changing red card to our goalkeeper Ben Garratt flipped the tie on its head.

Steve admitted to crewealex.net: “Sometimes the players do not reach the standard we set or expect of them in terms of their individual and collective performances but that is what can happen with young players. They can find it hard to produce that level of performance each game.

“We were terrific against Sheffield United and were full of confidence but we didn’t repeat that level of performance against Eastleigh. It was one of those days and things didn’t go our way, but we didn’t play well enough on the day.

“It was a young team but the majority of them are not that inexperienced when it comes to the number of games they have played.

“Perhaps the balance isn’t quite there and we could do with some more experience, especially when we are without H, Foxy and Billy. Having them in the team does make a difference. Marcus was the oldest player we had on Saturday at 26.

“Young players do have dips in form and when they are struggling in games they benefit from having an experienced player alongside them. It is difficult for them to turn to another young player, who may be struggling himself.

He added: “What we need to do as the staff, is get back out there and work with them. That is what we do at Crewe. It is challenging but something we embrace because we like to produce our own young players. “