David Artell believes that members of his first team are ‘blessed’ with natural talent and can help us enjoy a successful season next time out.

The Crewe Alexandra boss captained the club to their last promotion in 2012 and he saw the likes of Nick Powell, Ashley Westwood and Luke Murphy from that victorious team go on to play at a higher level. He believes he can see the same happening again with a new emerging group of young players.

David told the club’s official website: “You have to be resilient and consistent if you want to be challenging for promotion. When we won promotion we went on a terrific run and had built an unstoppable momentum to go up through the play-offs.

“We were confident we would get a result every time we stepped out onto the pitch. I had done it and I never thought that I was blessed with the talent that some of our players have now. They are more gifted than I ever was but I had other attributes that allowed me to have a long career in the game.

“If we work hard and have a little bit of luck with injuries then we can be right up there because we have the talent in the squad.”