Crewe Alexandra boss David Artell appreciates that it is going to be difficult away assignment at Colchester United this evening, but he firmly believes that if his side can repeat their performance against title favourites MK Dons then they can come away with three points.

Crewe held the MK Dons to a goalless draw at the weekend to collect our fourth point of the campaign thus far and the Alex boss was pleased with the overall performance over the 90 minutes.

Speaking ahead of tonight’s clash in Colchester, Artell told us: “It will be another challenge against Colchester. It will probably be a bit different to the MK Dons one but their manager John McGreal likes to play as well. They can also go more direct if necessary.

“It will be a tough game. It is always a difficult place to go and they have spent some money and will expect to be up there. They spent six figures on Harry Pell from Cheltenham and that is a lot of money for our level.

“They have some new players and some big lads and we will have to stand up to that. They have pace down the flanks and some good footballers in midfield as well, so we know it will be tough.It will be up to us to get on the ball and play.

“We have gone through some clips from Saturday, the things we did well and the things we can improve on.

“It is important not to overly worry about the opposition. We respect them because we have watched them and know they are a decent side but we have focus on our own performance. If we can get that right and defend as well as we did against the MK Dons then we have a great chance.

“I am a big believer in if you get the performance right then the result will look after itself. We have to make sure our levels are like they were against MK Dons when I thought every one of them worked their socks off.

David added: “If we can do that and be a bit better in the final third then there is no reason why we cannot get a result there.”