Steve says Alex defenders willl be looking forward to keeping Akinde as quiet as possible.

Steve Davis is backing his centre-halves to contain the league’s leading scorer John Akinde this weekend. The Alex boss has been impressed with all-round play of the the in-form Barnet marksman and he currently tops the scoring charts with a record of 14 goals in 18 appearances this season.

Davis says that whoever features in our back four this weekend will have to be ready for the challenge when facing the powerful 27-year-old striker.

Steve told crewealex.net: “Facing Akinde will be a challenge for whoever plays. He is the league’s top scorer and he is a big, powerful striker, who is also quick. You can see why he has got the goals he has got because he has all the attributes.

“We have played against good forwards before and when you are facing good players, you have to be up for the challenge. We have the characters here, who will be up for that challenge and we have gone through things with them to help them contain him.

“We know Akinde is a handful and he will be a real test because he has scored a lot of goals and caused defences all sorts of problems this season. It will difficult to hold him but I am sure that our defenders will be competitive and looking forward to the test he will provide.”