Crewe Alexandra manager David Artell has told the club’s official website that the unity and spirit within his squad will take us far this season. The Alex boss has compared the atmosphere inside the dressing room and around the place to that of 2012 when we went on an extraordinary 19-game unbeaten run to win promotion via the play-offs.
Ironically, we defeated our opponents this weekend, Cheltenham Town in the Wembley showpiece that year.
Artell captained that side and he says that he also have previously experience of a tight knit dressing room at Morecambe and Rotherham United.
The boss told us: “The spirit and bonding of the squad is very important. I have been at clubs where it is worth 10, 15 points.
“The spirit we had at Rotherham saw us win back-to-back promotions and reach the Championship. At Morecambe we finished 10, 9, and 4th in this division which was an incredible success considering the resources they had.
“The unity we had here at Crewe when we won promotion saw us go on a long unbeaten run, 18, 19 games or whatever it was and then beat Cheltenham at Wembley.
The boss added: “It is so important and the spirit has to be good. You cannot have those constraints because if you do, then a player like Tom Lowery won’t try flicking over the defenders’ head and then dinking over the goalkeeper. If he feels there will be repercussions from his team-mates then we maybe wouldn’t have the freedom to try it.”