Dave Artell says new goalkeeper has great attitude to improve.

David Artell has praised the judgement of his goalkeeping coach Fred Barber after signing trialist stopper Andrew Dawber until the end of the season. The Wigan-born goalkeeper has been training with Crewe Alexandra under the guidance of Barber for the last few months and when it was discovered that reserve goalkeeper Dave Richards had suffered a broken finger against Hyde on Tuesday evening, the vastly experienced coach recommended the 22-year-old.

After slipping out of the game, Dawber had asked Crewe if he could train at the Football Club and has impressed the coaching staff with his attitude and ability.

The Crewe boss told crewealex.net: “We have signed Andy and that should go through once we get clearance from the various associations.

“With Dave out injured, we were without another professional goalkeeper at the club, and we know Andy. He has been training with us and working with Fred for a while, and we know he is a competent goalkeeper. You don’t play in the Football League if you are not.

“He has trained with us and we have seen him. He has been training on a Monday and a Friday and it was a chance for him to get fit.

“On the back of being a good goalkeeper and having an attitude to improve himself has paid off for him. It is unfortunate what has happened with Dave and him getting injured but Andy’s luck has been in a bit and he now has an opportunity to show us what we can do.”

The former Fulham goalkeeper is not eligible to play in the Cheshire Senior Cup Final but he is likely to feature in our U-23 fixture against Charlton next Wednesday.

Artell says that fitness levels should not be a major problem. He says: “A goalkeeper has to have a different type of fitness to an outfield player. Keepers are usually blowing after six laps of the pitch!

“What we do know is that he has been training with us twice a week and doing extra work with Fred away from here, so we don’t think fitness will be a major concern.”