Winger Daniel Powell stepped up his return to full match fitness with an outing at Runcorn in the FA Cheshire Senior Cup.

Daniel Powell stepped up his return to full fitness with a useful outing against Runcorn Linnets on Wednesday evening. The winger came through unscathed in what turned out to be a fairly comfortable 3-1 win in the Cheshire Senior Cup for Alex Morris' side.

Powell made his return from an ankle injury at his former club, Northampton Town last weekend when coming on as a second half substitute. The former MK Dons graduate has not played since sustaining his ankle injury away at Carlisle United. Powell opened his goalscoring account that day with a wonderfully taken finish from distance.

Crewe boss David Artell told the club’s official website: “Daniel needed some match practice, so he got 90 minutes under his belt in mid-week. I don’t particularly want him to be playing Under-23s football but the Runcorn game was above that level.

“Daniel got those minutes and it is good to have him back because he is a good player.

He added: “With the injury he had, he was still able to do loads of work on his fitness, so we knew he was fit. The injury just prevented him from doing some twists and turns but he is fine with that now.”