David Artell says that he is looking for more improvement and consistency in the first half of the season. The Alex boss was relatively pleased in the way we concluded the season with four wins from our last five games, but the winter campaign is still an area of frustration that ultimately cost us the chance of a play-off place.

Crewe did not win an away game until October and suffered five defeats before that 1-0 win at Stevenage. The Alex boss says that his team need to improve in September, October and November if we are to be considered contenders for the top seven this coming season.

David told crewealex.net: “When we look back and assess the season, we know where we could have been better. We needed to be better away from home, especially against the sides in the bottom half of the table.

“We lost a lot of games by the odd goal and although most of the performances were good enough to have got something from the game, the results didn’t always tally. It was frustrating because we proved by going to MK Dons, Mansfield and Swindon that we are capable of winning at some difficult places.

“We usually start okay but fall away a bit in September, October, November before going on a good run in the second half of the season. I don’t know why that is. It is because the pitches are not as nice and the weather isn’t as nice as August or April? I am not sure but it is something we have to overcome and be better at because we dropped too many points in those months and that gave us too much to do.”