Crewe Alexandra’s number one Ben Garratt wants the club to make a good start to the new season, so that we can set the tone for a genuine push for promotion.

Garratt says he has already benefitted from attending the club’s fitness and conditioning sessions at the training ground. Players are permitted a two-week holiday at their discretion before full-time training starts at the end of the month but in between will attend two sessions a week.

Garratt told the club’s official website: “It is good to keep ticking over. The days of having six or seven weeks off and then coming back into pre-season are gone.

“The manager and the staff put sessions on for us and they are only for our benefit. You have to buy into it and it’s been good. It’s a good idea because it gives you base fitness levels for when the pre-season starts full-time.

“We want to make a good start and set the tone. We need to be right for the first game and the pre-season and friendlies give us the chance to prepare right. We want to make a good start and take it from there. If we can have a good run at the start then that will only give us more confidence.

“It is a long season and we want to give ourselves our best possible chance of being involved in a promotion push. A good start will help us with us.”