David Artell was pleased with the club’s run-out against neighbours Nantwich Town at the weekend. Crewe Alexandra won the game 1-0 thanks to a well worked goal between our first half strikers Shaun Miller and Jordan Bowery. Miller’s trickery close to the by-line ended with him delivering a perfect cross for Bowery to head home the only goal.

Artell was pleased that most of his squad got 45 minutes under their belts at the Weaver Stadium and that we came through unscathed.

The Crewe boss told the club’s official website: “The goal was a good one. Shaun did very well in the build-up to get the cross over and it was nice to see Jordan head one in. It was a well worked goal.

“Of course, at this stage, results do not matter at all. It is all about the players getting their match fitness and making sure we don’t get any injuries. We have no fresh ones and that is the bonus.

“We were without Owen (Dale) who has had his operation for his hernia. Michael Raynes because of his knee and (Joe) Lynch due to his foot injury but they were all ones that occurred before we came back. We knew about them and there is nothing new.

“I was happy with the run out and now we will ramp it up again this week and do more short and sharper work. We will start to get some coaching into them after working more on their fitness last week.”