David Artell says his players should perform ‘without fear’ against Forest Green Rovers this evening.

The Crewe Alexandra boss is looking for his side to bounce back from Saturday’s narrow 2-1 defeat by Coventry City. Crewe are currently on equal points with tonight’s opponents and three points this season would take either side to 40 points.

Ahead of tonight’s fixture at Gresty Road, David told us: “We know we have more than enough in our dressing room to make sure that we are not looking over our shoulders but the league position means we have to be.

“The games will come thick and fast. There are nine games left and in two weeks, that will be down to five games, so it is a crucial part of the season. We don’t want to be thinking about squeaky bum time. No-one wants that, so we have to make sure we get the points we will need as quickly as possible.

“We have plenty here to make sure we get out of it. We didn’t play as well as we have been doing on Saturday, but the improvement has been there to see. We have to make sure we remain as consistent as we can be from now until the end of the season.

He added: “We lost on Saturday but we can take some confidence that we have lost to the best team in the league. That’s my opinion and in the two games we have played against them there has not been much in the game. “