David Artell says his Crewe Alexandra side can travel to Newport this weekend full of confidence after collecting ten points from a possible 18. Crewe reached the 40 point mark on Tuesday night with a comfortable 3-1 win over Forest Green Rovers and Artell wants that recent form to continue.

Ahead of the weekend trip to South Wales, Artell told the club’s official website: “We have collected 10 points from 15 and we should have got three more against Exeter as well.

“This has coincided with some astute signings in January and us getting the majority of our injured players back. It is good to see the fruits of our labour being rewarded with some victories because the players have worked really hard.

“Now we have to make sure that continues. We want to finish the season well and finish as high as we can in the table. The season has not gone as well as we would have expected but we have dropped too many points from winning or drawing positions. If we had been on the other line of some of those late defeats then we would have had almost 20 more points and then it is a totally different season.

The boss added: “Of course, that is not an excuse but I would say that we have shown that we are not too far off and our destiny remains in our own hands.”