Club captain George Ray says that he has placed all contract talks on the back burner for the time being. The centre-half has recently returned from a slight injury to start the game against Exeter City at the weekend and the 25-year-old says he is completely focussed on helping results improve.

Crewe head to Forest Green Rovers this weekend on the back of two successive defeats to the Grecians and Oldham Athletic and Ray says that is important to get back on track if we are to avoid being dragged into another relegation battle.

George told the club’s official website: “I’m not really worrying about my future at the moment. I’m just focused on giving my best in every game. I want to become more consistent.

“For me, I’ve never worried about anything like that, except when I’m injured.

“When I’m playing, I don’t think about it until the time comes.

“As long as I’m under contract here you can count on me to give everything I’ve got.

“I think I’ve been more consistent in my performances this year, and hopefully that has a knock-on effect on other players.

“Things have to change and we cannot keep on missing the chances we have been doing. We could have been sitting here talking about a 2-1 win at Exeter or at least about us getting a point and again we ended up with nothing.

George added: “It is never nice to be in a fight at the bottom of any league and we don’t want that. There are a lot of games still to go and we need to pick some up as soon as possible to make sure we are not looking over our shoulders again.”