David Artell believes that his in-form Crewe Alexandra side will have to reproduce their recent away performances at Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup and Forest Green Rovers in a top of the table clash in League Two, if are negotiate our way past Eastleigh this weekend.
Crewe face the National League side in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup and Ben Strevens’ side have lost just once at home to Barnet this season. They are currently mid-table in the National League and have a wealth of experience with the likes of the former Crewe midfielder, Danny Hollands, defender Reda Johnson and forwards Scott Rendell and Tyrone Barnett in their ranks.
Ahead of this weekend’s FA Cup fixture, Artell said: “We have to play to our own levels or it will be a tough afternoon. That is why the cameras will be there. They will be expecting Eastleigh to raise their game and if we do not match that then we were struggle. It is as simple as that.
“To be fair to our lads, they have done terrific away from home this season and we don’t fear going anywhere.
“We went into the Accrington game (in the first round) and were saying that we wanted this to be a league game next season, so let us go and show that it could be. We did that and deserved to win. We wanted to go out and show how good we are against a team that is a league above us.
“We know face a team a league below us and now we have a different type of challenge. We will probably be favourites because we are a league above and again we have to go out and show it.
“The players have that conviction to go out and win away games now and it will be the same on Saturday. We want to showcase how good we can be.”