David Artell says that the competition for places in his starting XI will continue to keep everyone on their toes. The Alex boss is still without the vastly experienced midfielder Paul Green (knee) but he has a wealth of experience on his bench in the form of strikers, Alex Nicholls and Chris Porter and defenders Nicky Hunt and Michael Raynes.

The Alex boss says that those currently out of the team at the moment will be needed at some point over the rest of the season.

David told crewealex.net: “It doesn’t matter what position you play there is someone after your place. That is what we wanted to create and our squad is a strong one.

“There is good competition for all places. We have a lot of experience on the bench. We have two experienced strikers in Chris Porter and Alex Nicholls who have scored a lot of goals in their careers and it is only a matter of time before they will get a chance.

“We will need all of them at some point I am sure and they have to be ready. Hunty has come into the team and done really well and Finney came off the bench on Tuesday and did ever so well, so there are always options.”