Crewe Alexandra boss David Artell says he wants the clubs youngsters to continue to push the more senior players in the squad. The Alex boss, who previously worked within the club’s renowned Academy structure, has already shown great faith in giving Academy graduates Tom Lowery, Harry Pickering and Perry Ng game time this season and fellow young guns Owen Dale, Ollie Finney and Billy Sass-Davies have been on the substitutes’ bench.

David told crewealex.net: “The young ones have to keep the pressure on by playing well. This Football Club is about giving them their chance and then it’s up to them to take it. I am sure the fans who travelled to Bury in pre-season weren’t thinking ‘oh who is this lad Harry Pickering?’

“Harry was excellent against Newport and did fine for us again on Saturday. We know that he can come in and do a job for the team, no doubt about it.  

“If his emergence, if you like, has also given Zooms a kick up the bum, then it is only a double winner. That is the competition we want to create. Some of the younger ones are further on than the others but when you have players like Owen and Lewis Reilly scoring for the Under-23s then you consider them.

“They are a bit off yet but this is what this club does and will continue to do. Age doesn’t come into for me.”