Crewe Alexandra boss David Artell says that Chuma Anene has shown in the last week that he is more than capable of filling in for Chris Porter.

With the club’s leading scorer forced off with a hamstring strain against Eastleigh, Anene grabbed his opportunity with both hands. He scored a brace in the 3-1 win over the Spitfires to send Crewe into the third round of the FA Cup for the first time in over a decade and he followed that with the opener against Mansfield on Saturday in what was his first league start for the club.

The on-loan striker’s three goals in a week will now give David Artell a nice problem to have if Porter overcomes his hamstring injury for their weekend’s trip to Stevenage.

Artell said of his Norwegian forward: “Chuma has scored three goals in two games and although he could have scored even more, he has shown that he is a good player.

“He has to be patient because Chris has been terrific for us but we know now that whoever plays up there, we have two good centre-forwards. That is what we want. We know that if the ball is played up there to either Chris or Chuma that they can handle the football and know where the goal is.

“Chuma has done great and is improving all the time. We’ll see what happens this weekend.”