Crewe Alexandra boss David Artell has compared our first ten games of the season to reaching the first fence in the Grand National.

The Alex are currently in second place in League Two with this weekend’s opponents, Cheltenham Town, a place behind. It is all set up for an intriguing fixture at Whaddon Road this weekend and Artell says that it is still very early days.

Artell told crewealex.net: “Its ten games gone and in reality these are probably the least important ten. The most important will be the last 10 or 12 games going into March and April.

“We are at the first quarter and that is like going well but only reaching the first fence in the Grand National. There are 36 games to go, but at the moment we are very much in the race.

“The bottom line will be the result but playing well certainly helps with that. Saying that our worst performance of the season was at Leyton Orient and we still managed to win the game because we defended resolutely and created enough chances in the last 10 minutes to deserve to win.

He added: “Cheltenham will present their own challenges and we know we have to nullify their threat and exploit their weakness.”