David Artell believes that the shorter, sharper work we have been doing in training has paid off in the final third of the pitch. Crewe Alexandra scored eight goals over two games in mid-week after hitting six goals at Altrincham and Artell says the difference from the opening friendly at Nantwich is obvious to see.

The Alex players were doing double sessions and workload was heavy on the body in the opening 10 days of pre-season and Artell described the performance at Nantwich as ‘understandably a bit leggy’.

Following the 3-0 win at Witton on Tuesday evening, the manager told us: “There is still some way to go but it is good to get used to scoring goals and winning football matches. There is plenty more to come from us but I think you can now see the difference from the Nantwich game when we were a bit leggy.

“We pushed them really hard when they came back and that game was all about them getting through and getting used to playing football again. Their legs were understandably a bit heavy because of the demands we had put on them over the first seven days.

“Now we have that foundation of fitness in place, we have been able to work on the shorter, sharper stuff in training and I think everyone can see the difference in the performances. We have been more of a threat and have played some good football.

“We will have a different sort of test against Burnley this weekend but that is what pre-season is all about.”